To Rebuild the Lost Past
by JadeWing
Summary: A misunderstanding puts Kagome AWOL from the Feudal Era for thirteen years. The discovery that Naraku yet lives sends her back, but in a final clash both are sent to her time. Can she rally her people against Naraku's unleashed horrors--on her own?
1. Arrow In the Well

To Rebuild the Lost Past

Chapter One: Arrow In the Well

**__**

Well, hey, it's the ever-annoying JadeWing! This story...well, I suppose you might think it's not my style, but if you do, you might want to try reading more of my OTHER stories. Yeah, there's that whole deal where PEOPLE DIE. ::does quick tally:: In a story categorized under 'Humor' one character alone nearly dies over twenty times over the course of ten chapters. In a story and its sequel, one of the main characters dies two and a half times! (Don't ask how that works) I have a fetish in my stories for KILLING THE MAIN CHARACTERS! (And then miraculously resurrecting them, though never twice the same way, although there is one story where that doesn't happen...and then another where they're both already dead, although he's in heaven and she's in hell...but that was an accident too...ANYWAY) And then there's the stories CLEARLY MARKED 'ANGST'. These I call my PMS stories, and in one a character nearly commits suicide, in the other that same character dies in a car accident, leaving her boyfriend behind while he nearly goes insane. Yeah, I know, deep shit, huh?

But anyway, I know that for the most part I stick to humor. But trust me, even 'Matsuri' is gonna have its dark parts, as is another I'm working on. This is basically a bittersweet story and I know neither where it will go nor how long it will run. We'll just have to see, won't we?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She remembered it just as it was. Lying on her back, staring at the rafters of Kaede's hut, she could remember that battle. It was over. Naraku was gone. Miroku was free of his curse, while Sango had avenged her family and Inu-Yasha had taken revenge for the death of Kikyô and their betrayals. 

Kagome rolled over on the mat, rested her chin on her forearm, and rolled the Shikon Jewel between the ground and her palm. It was complete and whole; all that remained was for it to be completely purified in a wish for something good, and then it would be gone. The adventure would be over. 

She would have no purpose. No ties to this time. 

Closing her eyes, she chewed her lip in an effort not to cry. Perhaps it was the fact that she could only sense a low amount of Inu-Yasha's youki that distressed her so much. He'd given Naraku everything he had , as had they all, and that was what it had taken to destroy him. But that wasn't what had caused the drastic drop in his youki; it was the wound he had. 

__

She'd lost her bow and arrows in the explosion right in front of her; now, weapon-less, she was useless and only another distraction to the others until she could find some way to attack Naraku as well. 

But it didn't help that Naraku knew this as well. Kagome could see his leer, his slow grin dripping in malice, as he turned bottomless eyes towards her. Inu-Yasha saw him as he did and rushed to her side, almost too late. The blast of power scorched his back as he shoved her out of the way, leaving an angry red wound that started bleeding sluggishly.

"Inu-Yasha–are you all right?!" she gasped as he set her down.

"Fine," he replied, wincing a little. "Stay out of the way."

He had gotten hurt saving her. That stung more than anything; more than any insult, more than any brush-off, more than the thought that without the Shikon Jewel she had no purpose. And now he was in a weakened state, all because of her.

And Kikyô was still unappeased. Kagome had seen the pain in his eyes when they'd staggered away from the battlefield, only to find the coldly impassionate earthen priestess watching from a distance, as if to say, _It's going to take more than that to lay me to rest._

She sighed. Could Inu-Yasha ever truly be free of Kikyô?

__

I–I wish–I wish that he could have what he needed to be happy...

A soft glow started to fill the room, and she sat up, startled. The Shikon Jewel was pulsating, its light growing stronger with each beat of her heart, and she realized it was starting to activate. _Oh NO! What did I do?! What did I do?!_

I wished for Inu-Yasha's happiness, and then...

OH **NO!** He's going to KILL me when he finds out!

"Stop! No! Wait!" she hissed to it, shaking the jewel fruitlessly as it grew brighter and brighter despite her distinct attempts otherwise.

__

Wait...it's going to give him what he needs to be happy...So maybe he won't mind...

The Jewel flared blindingly bright, then winked out, and the room was dark again. She felt drained somehow, and a bit empty, but...

Was it really over? Was the jewel gone, spent on her half-conscious wish? She couldn't feel it anymore, that was for certain...

Getting to her feet, she went to the room where she knew Inu-Yasha was sleeping and peered in. To her eyes, there was no change...but he'd have what he needed, and that was that. 

[AN: Don't mind if this sounds incredibly strange; I'm writing this at approximately 2:28 AM...actually, now I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, everybody.]

[AN: Okay, now it's 12:52 AM now and I'm wide awake, alert, and enthusiastic! Onward!]

She returned to her bed on the tatami matting and slowly tried to relax, closing her eyes and making her breath even. Her mind wandered vaguely over the subject of what was going to happen now, but her exhausted, rational self shoved those thoughts in a corner for later pondering. 

Kagome dozed, part of her mind refusing to abandon the topic of the now-gone Shikon Jewel and Inu-Yasha's 'happiness' and the rest of her mind ignoring it. However, she couldn't really sleep like that. Whether it had been an hour to pass or five minutes, she never knew, but eventually she sat up again, now very cross. Dammit, she wanted to sleep! Why did she have to be cursed with a sense of responsibility? 

Keeping her internal grumbles _inside_, where they belonged, she got to her feet. Maybe a walk would take her mind off the troubles of tomorrow...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inu-Yasha woke with a start. He didn't know what caused his sudden return to consciousness...no, now he did. But...it couldn't be....

He staggered to his feet, disregarding his wounds--they were just wounds; they'd go away--and painfully made his way outside, knowing what awaited him. 

Kikyô stood there, in the false body of dirt and bone. This time, though, it smelled different--as did she.

Somehow, in a way he couldn't fathom, she was _whole_ again.

"Ki--Kikyô?!" 

She smiled, albeit a bit sadly, and said, "I...We need to talk."

He noticed she was keeping her voice low as to not raise the others, and followed suit. "What is it?"

"I...for a little while at least, I am complete again." She stared at her hands. "I'm sorry. I wish I could have trusted you, Inu-Yasha."

"Don't say that," he said swiftly, and would have continued, but she cut him off.

"It's the truth, no matter how much either of us despise it," she returned. "But...it's not all I am sorry for." For a moment, her eyes searched the stars. "When...I was half-alive, in this...doll, when I was alive in this doll, I did things no human should have ever done. I tried to kill you. I would have killed myself, but not as you are thinking. I would have killed Kagome, had you not come along in time." She sighed. "I know she never told you. She's never going to hurt anything or anyone by her own choice, Inu-Yasha."

"I...know." Why was she telling him this? "Why are you here?"

"As long as I'm in my right mind, I wanted to tell you that I found peace. I will bother you no longer."

"You're leaving."

"Yes." Kikyô took a step towards him. "But before I go..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kagome clung to the support beam, yawning, and rubbed her eyes before slowly padding outside. 

Truly enough, she was drowsy. But not drowsy enough to mistake what was right in front of her face.

Kikyô was in Inu-Yasha's arms, before her, both drenched in moonlight as they kissed. Inu-Yasha was obviously too...preoccupied to even notice they were being observed, as was Kikyô. But Kikyô...didn't have the bite of youki that she normally did, no sharpness of hate in her face.

Kagome swallowed as the harsh reality hit her. In order to make Inu-Yasha happy, the Shikon Jewel had restored Kikyô to her former self. 

There was nothing left for her here. She wasn't vital to her companions; Miroku had Sango and Inu-Yasha, as she could very well see, had someone to help him pass the time. Shippô would do well enough with the two merry little couples. No one needed her here. All she did was get in the way, get her friends hurt when they tried to protect her. 

Silently she slipped back inside and sat, deep in thought and morose, until the heralds of the dawn sounded their trumpets by lighting the edges of the hills. She'd heard Inu-Yasha come back inside; she figured it was only a matter of time before Kikyô came back to start claiming what was rightfully hers once more. 

Kagome left with her pack on her back, her bow strung, and a letter behind her in the room where she'd nearly slept. She'd almost reached the well when the first sense of Inu-Yasha's youki bristled at the edge of the forest, moving fast. He was coming after her. "Sit," she whispered, and prayed it would work. When his youki stopped for a moment, she knew it did, and whispered it again at least five times before she reached the well. Then she dropped her bag down into the well and was about to swing herself in when crashing in the bushes behind her alerted her to Inu-Yasha's presence. 

Kagome fell into the well, looking at a sky starting to lighten with the coming dawn and the shocked face of Inu-Yasha as he cried out, _"Kagome!"_

Then it faded into darkness, then into the dark wooden rafters of the well house. Stringing an arrow on her bow, she fired a shot straight into the ground, just as a jolt ran under her feet. Something seemed to fight her, and for a moment she strained against an invisible force, and then all was still.

Back in the Sengoku Jidai, Inu-Yasha slammed into dirt. But there was more to the floor of the dry well than just dirt; there was a barrier now too. He fought it, feeling pain run down his arms, but it refused to give way. For a moment he could see the weary-looking Kagome standing there, faint against the darkness, and it startled him into giving in a moment. The shield repulsed him completely, throwing him out of the well, and he realized that had he not caught it before it was complete he wouldn't have stood a chance. 

The shield spread over the well, forming a crackling dome, and he stared at it, devastated. She couldn't be...she wasn't...

But she was. Kagome was lost to him forever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took her a few short words to tell her family she was home to stay. "It's over. I'm staying here."

"But--but, Nee-chan, what about Inu-Yasha-nii-chan?" Sôta asked, his voice nervous, as if he could sense in the air that all was not right.

"He's staying where he belongs," she replied, her voice tight and clipped.

"But--"

She could hear her mother rapidly hush Sôta up and didn't care. It wasn't her problem anymore. Inu-Yasha would be just fine--no, _happy_--with Kikyô, thanks to her own damn wish, and she wasn't needed anymore. All those times--all those times Inu-Yasha had said she was just a shard detector, and it had proved true.

And here she was, handing the one she was closest to over to her worst enemy. True, Kikyô was whole now, but still--time and time again, Inu-Yasha had chosen a pile of dirt and bones over her, one with a fragment of the soul of the girl he'd loved long ago, while she was, in essence, the same person. 

What did Kikyô have to offer him that she didn't? What made her better? What would it take to finally make Inu-Yasha hers?

__

Stop it! she told herself, trying to clamp down on the flood of nasty thoughts, each as biting as acid. _This isn't you, Kagome! This isn't who you are! You never were Kikyô and you never **will** be, so let it go!_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shippô knew something wasn't right, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. As the dawn came and morning light flooded the small room where he was curled beside Miroku, he tried to think of what it could possibly be, but no answer came.

When he realized the truth, he jumped to his feet like he'd been stung by a bee and ran into Kagome's room. She wasn't there, like he'd thought, so he ran as fast as he could to the well.

Inu-Yasha was slumped against a tree, his posture proclaiming something Shippô had never seen in him: defeat. His shoulders shook; then Shippô saw the shield over the well.

"Go away, fox." He'd never heard Inu-Yasha's voice like that.

"Kagome's not coming back, is she?" he asked softly.

"I said go away, fox." With the lack of conviction in his voice, Inu-Yasha just sounded bitter. 

Shippô ignored him and went over to the well, sitting at the edge of the barrier. Inu-Yasha was crying, and he knew it, but he felt like crying himself and wasn't going to rub it in. This was no time for their usual pranks.

__

"Such a pity." There was no mistaking that cold, calculated voice. "The little bird has left her nest in search of a better home."

Inu-Yasha sat bolt upright, fighting off a chill down his spine, and turned incredulous eyes to the edge of the clearing.

There sat a man in a baboon pelt, casual as if he was drinking tea with his closest friends. "Ah...deception. I love it," he said smugly, grinning. "Had you going, didn't I? That little bitch accidentally used the Shikon Jewel to wish for your happiness, you dumb bastard, and from there on it was a piece of cake. _'I'm sorry. I wish I could have trusted you,'"_ he sang in Kikyô's voice, his face changing to look like her. "And that poor little bitch saw it all, thought you needed Kikyô to be happy, and got all flustered! Dumb humans, always thinking the wrong thing. But then, you'd know, wouldn't you?" he asked, his tone insulting. "And really, my dear half-ass youkai, I don't kill _that_ easily. After all, I _am_ Naraku." He smiled horribly. "You really should see the look on your face, Inu-Yasha. It's just precious." Naraku cocked his head to the side. "Though really, I didn't like kissing you. Much too sloppy."

Never before in his life had Inu-Yasha wanted to kill Naraku more, never. When he'd forced Kagome back down the well, all those times he'd shielded her, all those times he'd trusted in her, it was to try and keep her from suffering the pain she'd suffered in her previous life. And it was all worthless.

But even worse, Kagome was going to have to live with the pain. He knew her so well by now--she'd feel jealous of the Kikyô that wasn't here, then hate herself for it, over and over again, the same cycle, for the rest of her life. 

Eyes burning in hate, he leapt at Naraku, who dodged easily. "Hey, hey, don't kill the messenger," he said mockingly. 

Inu-Yasha proved in the next few minutes that he was whole-heartedly ignoring those words. In fact, he kept stabbing the deadened earth and doll of the puppet, long after it was 'killed', livid with rage and pain. Naraku was still out there. He'd failed. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Kagome-chan!" Her friends ran up to her, wide-eyed. "We've been so worried! We heard you got viral bronchopneumonia!"

"I'm...better now," she said slowly, swallowing.

"What's the matter?" Michi asked. "Are you okay?"

"Is it something with that guy you're seeing?" Her friend Setstuko guessed shrewdly.

"Wha--oh, no, not at all," she said a bit too quickly.

"It _is!"_ Setsuko said triumphantly. "What is it? Did you have a fight?"

"Really, if you did, I think you should break up with him," Michi added. "He's just no good for you, Kagome-chan."

"Ah..." She really couldn't think of something to say. _How about, 'He's in the Sengoku Jidai period and making out with a priestess thanks to my idiocy'?_

"Come on, spill!"

"Yeah, Kagome-chan! If he's hurting you, you shouldn't be with him! No one deserves that!"

"Uh..."

"Kagome-chan! We're your best friends, you can tell us!"

"Oh god, he didn't give you an STD, did he?!"

Kagome promptly lost her temper.

"He is GONE! NO MORE! NO MORE INU-YASHA! INU-YASHA IS **DEAD! DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD! _DEAD!"_**

"..."

"..."

To her surprise, tears flowed freely down her face as people watched the poor black-haired girl have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the schoolyard. Her friends were hugging her, saying they were so sorry and she didn't have to talk about it if she wanted and there was still Hojo-kun, wasn't there? She felt ashamed for letting herself lash out like that, particularly at her loyal friends who were trying to do the best for her. "I'm okay," she said thickly, drying her face roughly on a sleeve. "Come on, we have to get to class."

She heard whispers behind her. "Did she say Inu-_Yasha?"_

Yes, I said Inu-Yasha, she thought silently. _But I won't again. I won't think of him again. I have my whole life in front of me now, and no more of the adventure. It's all over. I have to get over it and move on. _

But it was going to be so hard...

__

Forget about it all, Kagome. Forget about Inu-Yasha, and Miroku, and Sango and Shippô, and move on.

-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-

__

Thirteen Years Later; Kagome is twenty-nine

-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-*~*-

Kagome let herself into her fiancé's apartment complex, waving tiredly at the manager. Maybe Yuuta would give her a massage before they left; with a week before the wedding, she was running herself ragged between plans and her day job. Hopefully Yuuta would get a job himself soon, but it wasn't his fault he'd been laid off

"Yuuta?" she called, opening the door. "Yuuta, you home?"

When no sounds met her call, she decided he was out on an errand. After all, she was here half an hour early--maybe he was getting her roses or something! He was so sweet, and always so charming... Somehow he made her feel special and adored. 

Of course, the fact that he was drop-dead gorgeous helped quite a bit. And when he'd asked her to marry him...

She suppressed a yawn. Her night job was taking so much out of her...thank god it was Friday; she knew she was going to sleep for most of the weekend. Starbucks could only take the place of so much sleep. 

Maybe she'd catch a nap, then. She'd done it before while waiting for him here. Leaving her purse on the table, she walked down the darkened hall and opened the door to his bedroom.

She saw the very chesty blonde in his bed, and then she saw him. And it wasn't looking like a friendly exchange, either. 

They both started when she came in, and then Yuuta said slowly, "I...I can explain, Kagome."

Kagome took a deep breath and thought before answering. Nodding to the blonde, she said calmly but coolly, "I understand completely."

"I swear, it was--what?"

"I understand," she said quietly. "It's perfectly normal."

"It--uh--"

"Why wouldn't you want to screw a woman with tits bigger than your head?" Her voice remained steely calm, though she was screaming inside. "After all, nature is no substitute for silicon." Pulling off the ring, she tossed it to him. "Have fun with your slut and her flotation devices."

As she shut the door, she heard a feminine voice say, "I thought you said she was pretty."

__

Oh god. That did not just happen. Her hands shook as she seized her purse from the table and dashed out, down the stairs, and out onto the sidewalk. Could she drive right now? She didn't trust herself right now; instead, she just sat in her car and picked up her cell phone, hitting a button. "M-Michi-chan, it's me," she said tremulously.

"Kagome-chan? What's wrong?"

"Can you come pick me up? I'm at Yuuta's and I don't think I can drive."

"Sure thing, hon. I'll be right there." There was a click, and then empty buzzing. 

__

God, I really thought he was the one, she thought, sobbing. _Why do they always leave me?_

She voiced that to Michi when she came. "Why? Why do they always leave me, huh?"

"Kagome-chan, there's something I've always noticed," she said thoughtfully, arm around her friend's shoulder in comfort, tissues at the ready. "No matter who it is, how you meet them, or how long you date, you never really give all of yourself to him. It's like there's still something you're holding back, that you won't give them--"

"My virginity?" Kagome interrupted harshly.

"No, or I would have shot the past five of your boyfriends myself." She narrowed her eyes. "Remember when we were just going into high school, thirteen years ago? You were sixteen." Kagome nodded, not knowing what was coming. "There was that guy you were seeing, the one that died. Whenever you talked about him, whether you were happy or angry or sad, you sort of lit up. I think it's that light that's missing from your relationships."

Kagome swallowed before saying anything. Why couldn't Inu-Yasha's memory leave her alone? So what if she was really in love with him at one point? She was in love with Yuuta, and the other five boyfriends she'd had. 

__

Not like you were with him, a tiny voice said. _You would have gone through hell and back to be with him._ But that was then, and this was now.

"Gee, Michi-chan, you should be a talk show host," she joked with a watery smile and a sniffle. 

"Well, even with Hojo-kun, you didn't light up," she said practically, out of the philosophic moment she'd had. "That poor boy. Dumb as a post, but he was devoted to you."

"Yeah, until he left me for a chesty blonde. I hate chesty blondes. And how pathetic is that? I got cheated on by _Hojo."_

"Yeah, Kagome-chan, no offense and all, but that is pretty sad." Her friend grinned ruefully. "You just need to find your light again. Now come on, let's get you home. Hot chocolate can solve anything."

Kagome smiled again, though it didn't have the intoxicating glow it had once had, long ago... To find her light again. Maybe she should have wished for her own happiness...no, that was ridiculous. 

Someday. Someday she would find the one for her...and her light. 

Suddenly, she wanted to go back. Back to the shrine. Back to her mother, her grandfather, to her old room. "Michi-chan? Can you drive me back to my old house?" It wasn't that far from here, really.

"Sure thing." She twiddled the steering wheel.

"I just want to go home," she replied in answer to the unspoken question.

"Okay."

They were there in a few minutes. Kagome got out, sighing, and hoped her mother wouldn't mind. "Thank you, Michi-chan."

"No problem. Hang in there, Kagome-chan." Michi squeezed her hand comfortingly, then drove away.

Kagome slowly climbed the steps to the shrine, then knocked on the door. Her mother opened it, took one look at her daughter's face, and ushered her inside, pouring her a cup of tea and slowly getting the story out of her. "You handled it very well," she finally said once the tale was told. "That pompous asshole has no idea what he's missing out on, Kagome-chan. Just wait till she leaves him for some old fart with lots of money and a big willy."

"Kaa-chan!" Kagome cried, shocked her mother could be so coarse. Not that she wasn't in total agreement, but to hear her _mother_ say such things...

Her mother grinned. "It's the way of the world of trashy people. They cheat and get cheated on. Now go take a long bubble bath, you'll feel more human."

Kagome was drying off when she heard a shriek from downstairs. She wrapped a bathrobe around herself and automatically ran into her bedroom, seized the bow and arrows she'd hid in the closet, and pounded down the stairs. Two years in the Sengoku Jidai period had left their mark on her and her reflexes, even thirteen years afterward.

But what scared her was that she could feel the youki.

Catching a glimpse of scaled as she skidded into the kitchen, she let loose an arrow and nocked another one, feeling the peculiar feeling of her Miko powers uncurling within her. The arrows flew one after another, pinning the legged snake to the wall and purifying a chunk of flesh until none was left but the head.

Striding over, Kagome grasped it by the tuft of hair on its forehead, ripped it free of the wall, threw it on the ground, and stepped on it. "Who sent you?" she demanded, mind racing.

"You...must die...Kikyô's incarnate..."

"Who sent you, you son of a bitch?" she asked again, stringing an arrow and knowing this one would regenerate soon if she didn't kill it in thirty seconds.

Seeing the arrow, its eyes widened, but then narrowed in defiance. "Lord...Naraku...has risen...and he will rule you all...pathetic humans..."

Somehow, Kagome kept her mind calm. "Here's your pathetic," she snarled, firing straight into its eye. The head disintegrated as she ran to the wellhouse, feeling sick.

The boards Jii-chan had nailed over its opening were torn free and broken, splinters everywhere. The barrier had worn down.

She fired another arrow into the bottom of the well to prevent anything else coming through, then sat down hard on the steps. Naraku wasn't dead? How could that be possible? She'd seen him ripped apart by the Cutting Wind herself, the parts of his body flying everywhere. 

Already something was fighting her barrier; something strong and much more powerful than what had just come through. Something wanted her dead again, and she would have put money on a bet that it was Naraku, dead or alive. 

She sat up and gasped. If Naraku was back somehow, he would surely start with his deception, his trickery, his lies...all over again, but even more surely, he would come after the ones who had caused his first downfall. Miroku's houshi powers were strong, but not even remotely close to enough to fight Naraku. And Inu-Yasha...

__

Wait. What about Kikyô? If she's all that she's cracked up to be, then this should be **nothing.**

But two Kikyôs were better than one, weren't they? And what if Inu-Yasha and Kikyô were...

Already dead?

__

Oh god, I never thought of that. If he's dead--screw this whole thing with Kikyô, if he's dead I'll rip apart Naraku myself!

"Kagome-chan?" 

She stood up again and trudged up the stairs. "Kaa-chan, I'm going to need my old pack and my bike," she said slowly.

Her mother covered her mouth, and her eyes grew bright. She suddenly hugged Kagome tightly. "You're going back."

"I have to. Someone there wants me dead, and I don't want to keep having to put up a barrier on the well. Besides, if Naraku really is back, they're going to need my help."

"Naraku?" Her mother looked shocked. "You killed him."

"I know. I'm going to find out why he's back, and I'll kill him myself and do it so he stays down, even if I have to drag him to the mouth of hell myself." 

An hour later, Kagome dropped to the bottom of the well, dressed practically in jeans and a sweater, pack in hand, her bike at her side, and bow and arrows at her back. Taking a deep breath, she reached down, her heart fluttering, and grasped the arrow with violently trembling hands. "Ja ne, kaa-chan," she called. "I love you. I don't know how long this is going to take this time, but I'll try to come back."

"I love you too, baby." They were the last words she heard from the twenty-first century.

She wrenched out the arrow and fell into darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**__**

Ooooh, lovely lovely cliffhanger, ne? ::gets several hundred spears pointed at her by angry fans (or maybe just one fan, I dunno) who want to know what happens next NOW.:: Well, um, ....I can't tell you! That would be cheating! ^^;;; Anyway, hopefully the second chapter will be up soon enough. Adiosity for now!


	2. Demon Lord

To Rebuild the Lost Past

Chapter Two: Demon Lord

**__**

Ah, fall. The time when I must drag my sorry carcass back to school, also usually around my birthday because I'm a Virgo. Happy 16th birthday to me, oh yeah. 

Well, anyway, at least Sapphire Midnight and I can mourn together—our b-days are two days apart, so it can't be that bad, and besides, we're holding a joint party. I'd invite all you guys, but being that for the most part you live in another state, I'll just have to send you a slice of e-cake. If it even exists.

Anyway, let's get on with the story. I really don't have a clue about what happens after this chapter, but then, I didn't have a clue about this chapter when I wrote the last one either. Fun.

Disclaimer: Please tell me you don't honestly think that I own this. If you do, that's pretty sad. I'd be very busy if I did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She'd hoped she'd never have to return to the Sengoku Jidai ever again, and yet, here she was, standing in a well, looking at the sky. One thing could be said for the past: the air was indelibly fresh.   
Of course, there was the offset that there were youkai. Big, fat, bloodthirsty youkai. Ones that had a taste for human flesh, or at least a fetish for ripping it apart. And one was waiting for her outside the well, another nice big one.

Leaving her bike and pack behind her, she hoisted herself up the vines trailing down and peered over the edge. Just her luck: this one had enough power to retain a humanoid form. At least it hadn't realized her presence yet, but that was about to change. 

She swiftly fired, but it was a bare fraction of a second too late. The youkai leapt mostly out of the way, but the arrow grazed her leg, ripping it off from the knee down.

"Shit! That _hurt,_ you little bitch!" The woman scowled at her, then sighed, dodging arrows and making clicking noises. 

Insects arose from the grass nearby and swarmed towards her, crawling over her hands. She couldn't swat them off without losing her grip, so instead she breathed deep, called on the light of her Miko powers, and fueled them into a blaze. Chattering, the insects deserted her, either burnt to a crisp or wise enough to leave the woman alone.

Now the youkai-woman had taken her true form: a horrible blend of a woman, a spider, and a centipede. "Come get me, _Miko,"_ she taunted. Kagome, now feeling slightly ill, fired off another arrow, but the demoness nimbly dodged it. Hairy legs wrenched her arms up and hauled her free of the well, leaving her to dangle in the air while her attacker drew closer, pincers clicking, hot saliva dripping and rolling down her normal teeth.

Then something spun out of nowhere, decapitating the creature before returning to whence it came. Kagome landed on the grass with a thump, turned to that her rescuer, and found a familiar young woman at the edge of the clearing. 

Her long black hair was in a ponytail, magenta eyes elegantly framed by long black lashes. A small cat with two tails at her side trotted over, hissed at the demon's remains, and turned wide scarlet eyes over to Kagome.

__

"Kirara?" she whispered.

The young girl secured the scythe-like weapon to her back and walked over. "Are you all right, Miko-sama?"

"Sango-chan?" Had the thirteen years in her time really been no more than a few months—or even days—here?  
"I'm sorry, my name's Kagome, Miko-sama." She helped the elder Kagome to her feet. "My mother's name is Sango, though."

"I see." Had they really…?

"Miko-sama, are you a traveler?" Seeing the older woman's startled look, she added hastily, "Your clothes are not of this region, begging your pardon."

"You could say that I am, I suppose." She gave the girl a reassuring smile. "I was just thinking—see, my name is Kagome too."

The Sango-lookalike's eyes widened. "Miko-sama, did you come from the well?"

"Yes, I did. How did you know?"

"Okaa-chan is going to be so happy!" The girl ran off, leaving a surprised Kagome behind her. 

Shrugging, she went back down the well, Kirara watching her with curiosity. "_You_ remember me, don't you?" she asked as the cat turned into her bigger size. "Here, catch. I'm not as full of youthful energy as I used to be." _Either that or I just took a crapload of stuff._ She hauled her pack up and Kirara took it carefully in her mouth, then the bike.

After scrambling out herself, she collapsed against the side of the well and closed her eyes. It would take work to adjust to the pace she'd kept as a sixteen-year-old. _How did I do it?_ she wondered. _How?_

"Ka—Kagome-chan?"

There was no mistaking that voice. She got to her feet and saw Sango at the edge of the forest, looking as if she might cry. Thirteen years had made her friend a woman instead of a girl, but hadn't scoured her beauty. Yet, faint differences let her know the years had taken enough of their toll to count for something.

That was when she realized how trivial the troubles were back in her time. Sure, they stung, but they were behind her now. _And_ they were nothing compared to the perils of this time.

But, in a strange way, it felt as if she'd returned…home.

"Sango-chan!" She threw herself into her friend's arms, crying harder than she'd let herself cry since she'd left this all behind.

"Kagome-chan, why did you go? We all missed you—hell, I missed you!" her friend managed to choke out through tears. "All Inu-Yasha would say is that he and you were tricked and no more, and Shippô's as bad as he is! And what made you come back?"

Kagome steeled herself, dreading the response, and asked, "Well, how are Inu-Yasha and Kikyô?"

"What?" Sango just looked confused. "Inu-Yasha's off governing his lands and taking reports, and nobody knows where that pile of dirt is. I mean, after all, if she wasn't appeased by Naraku's death, what _can_ we do?" Sango paused. "Although since Naraku was able to return, that may have something to do with it…"

Could she mean what Kagome thought she meant? "You…you mean Inu-Yasha isn't with Kikyô?"

"Eh?" Sango was stunned. "Gods, now! We've seen neither hide nor hair of her since we initially killed Naraku!" Suddenly, she slapped her forehead and scowled. "Speak of the devil—we'd best get inside. Kirara, can you get her pack and the—the _thing?_"

"Why do we have to get inside?" Kagome asked, following Sango through the dense forest.

"Because we do," she replied shortly. "We're lucky my Kagome killed the Lady of the Insects, or else Naraku would know for sure that you're back. He knows we guard the well, but the area around it is sacred and he cannot use his spying powers to see or hear within it, so when he goes to see how his minion fared, he'll just think one of us killed her."

" 'Us'? 'We'? Who does this include, Miroku?"

Sango started, then blushed a bit. "That's right, you left before…"

"Before _what?"_ demanded Kagome, suspecting she knew very well just what 'what' was.

"We…ah, got married about two or three months after you left." Now her friend was bright red. "Miroku and I did, that is. You know."

"Finally!" Kagome hugged Sango around the shoulders. "I take it he wasn't in such a rush to have an heir though, with his hand not cursed anymore."

Sango's face fell. "Actually, when Naraku came back…"

"It _didn't,"_ Kagome whispered, horrified.

The raven-haired exterminator nodded sadly. "It started small like when he'd first got it, but it's gotten bigger each year. And each of the children…"

"They have it _too?"_

"Kagome's the only one who understands the seriousness of it, but Kohaku and Kosaku are starting to catch on." [AN: Yes, Kosaku is a real name, I didn't just make it up to rhyme with Kohaku.]

"Good Lord, Sango-chan, how many children do you _have?!"_ Kagome blurted out, startled.

She blushed even harder. "Not _that_ many, and besides, I need to carry on the family line! The world needs Taiji-ya!"

"Uh huh, and that's the _only_ reason," Kagome scoffed. "Jeez, Sango-chan, you can't repopulate your entire village all by yourself, you know."

At that, the woman laughed so hard she nearly cried. "Oh _Gods,_ I needed that, Kagome. We needed you here, just to make us laugh again."

"Oh, joyous rapture," Kagome said dryly. "I come back thinking I'll get this big, weepy reunion, and instead my old friend _laughs_ at me." They broke through the forest, the village coming into sight, and Kagome felt butterflies erupt in her stomach. "Where is Inu-Yasha?"

The grin faded from Sango's face. "I'll tell you inside." Her tone was clipped and tight, like some persisting grievance plagued her, and Kagome didn't press her further. They approached a large house with a sturdy fence walling the wooden structure in. Behind it, two identical boys of about ten were dragging tools of some sort up and down a small field, while a girl who looked to be near eight practiced expertly with a weapon of some sort, all the while keeping an eye on a young toddler.

"Kosaku, Kohaku, I _told_ you not to use your weapons for tilling!" Sango called, scolding. 

"Aw, Okaa-chan," one whined. The other elbowed his brother and said dutifully, "Yes, Okaa-chan."

Sango's expression softened into an affectionate smile. "We have a guest, children. This is my friend, Kagome."

"Yes, Okaa-chan?" The girl from before came out of the house, a four-year-old girl on her hip.

"Not you, Kagome-chan, _this_ Kagome." She indicated the foreignly-clothed woman at her side. "She's the one you were named for."

"Okaa-chan, is that really her?" the eight-year-old girl asked, her eyes huge. "The one who helped you nearly kill the bad man?"

"Uh huh. Kagome chan, these are my daughters, Kagome—you already met her—" –the twelve year old smiled shyly at her—"Risako,"—the eight-year-old girl bowed—"and Mai." She gestured to the four-year-old, who hid her face in her big sister's shirt and peered at the stranger, awed. "And these are my sons, Kohaku, Kosaku—they're twins—"The boys bowed too "—and our little man, Denbe." The toddler was too busy drawing something in the dirt to pay any attention. "Can you say hello, Denbe-chan?"

The little boy looked at his mother, turned bright violet eyes to Kagome, put his hand in his mouth, and whispered, "'Lo."

"I'm very glad to meet you all," Kagome said, resisting the urge to squeal like the schoolgirl that she had been when she was here last over the adorable Denbe. Then she saw the special gloves and rosaries on each of their right hands, even little Denbe, and almost cried. Luckily, Sango ushered her inside, ordering Risako to fetch water and for Kohaku and Kosaku to get back to plowing the field, though with the proper tools this time.

Inside, Kagome's curiosity was renewed. "Why couldn't we talk outside, Sango-chan? What happened while I was gone?"

Sango indicated for her to sit down, then did so herself, telling the younger Kagome to watch the children outside. The house went silent for a moment before she chose to speak further. "This house is one of the few places left where Naraku's eyes and ears cannot reach. Kaede, Miroku, and many other priests and priestesses cast a barrier over our land, but it's strongest in the house, and we can speak freely. Outside, _he_ may hear, and if it concerns Inu-Yasha, Naraku must not hear." She paused. "I—We must know why you left, Kagome. Inu-Yasha and Shippô have very skewed views of what qualifies 'vital information'; all we know is that you were gone, Naraku had reappeared, and the Shikon Jewel was still here."

"It is?!"

"Yes—but that's not important right now. _What happened?"_

Kagome took a deep breath, in part to calm herself and in part to help recollect all that had happened that horrible evening. "I…couldn't sleep. I was thinking about Kikyô and what would happen now, and I realized that without the Shikon Jewel I wouldn't have any purpose. I would just be in the way—a distraction. I…I was half-asleep when I wished that Inu-Yasha could be happy—no, _have_ what he needed to be happy. The Jewel took that as a pure wish, I guess, and it disappeared, and I assumed it had been purified. I dozed for a little while, still couldn't sleep, and went outside to take a walk. Inu-Yasha was out there… _with_ Kikyô." She laughed bitterly. "I realized the Jewel had restored her body and soul, or I would have sensed youki from her. He just needed _her_ for him to be happy. For a jewel that's supposed to grant your heart's desire, this isn't very impressive, is it?" She didn't wait for an answer, continuing doggedly. "I went back inside before they saw me, came to the realization that if I stayed here, people would get hurt trying to protect me, and left at dawn. You know the rest—Inu-Yasha came just as I went down the well, I put an arrow in the ground in my time to keep anything from coming through, and things were hunky-dory for thirteen years apart from me going through five—no, _six_ now—boyfriends and being cheated on by each one. I guess the barrier wore down today, because a demon came through and went after Kaa-chan. I let it live long enough to hear that Naraku was still alive, blew its head off, and headed here. If I knew he was still alive sooner, I would have been back as fast as I could, trust me. But I didn't, and I know Inu-Yasha was doing just fine with Kikyô, and so I just decided to have my heart trampled all over in my own time as opposed to the Sengoku Jidai."

"But Kagome-chan, I told you—Kikyô hasn't been seen for _years,_ much less with Inu-Yasha—oh. Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no."

"What?"

"Kagome-chan…what exactly was Inu-Yasha _doing_ with Kikyô when you saw them?"

"Kissing, why?"

Sango bolted to her feet and paced around the room, eyes bulging and hands over her mouth. A muffled noise came from behind those hands, sounding vaguely like _"EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!"_ She paused for a second, then jumped a little, her expression a strange hybrid of disgust and mirth. "Oh, that is SO WRONG! No _wonder_ Inu-Yasha wouldn't tell us, poor man! _Ew ew ew ew eeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!"_

"What _is_ it, Sango-chan?" Kagome demanded.

"Naraku borrows forms a lot, doesn't he?" Sango said weakly, still shocked. "And if he can come back to life, he can disguise his youki, can't he? And he's used Kikyô's form before, hasn't he?"

It was Kagome's turn to jump to her feet and pace back and forth, wailing like a harpy. "EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!! EW! EW! EW! _EWWWWWWWWW—_Wait a second, that means—" She sat abruptly, and thought for a moment, then asked Sango, "What all has happened while I was gone?"

Sango had calmed down somewhat and also sat down. "A lot…where do I begin?"

"Start at the beginning."

"Well, Inu-Yasha came out of the forest with Shippô the morning you left and told us that you were gone and that Naraku was back. No one can figure out why or how, but the point was that he was back. We were thinking of what to do when Kaede came out and said that the Shikon Jewel had been left on Inu-Yasha's bed, with just a piece of paper. He has it, and I've never seen it, but whatever it was, it made up his mind. After Miroku and I got married, we went with him to gather the strongest Miko and Sou and monks we could find. They all knew of Naraku by then and knew of the danger presented by the Shikon Jewel, but for some reason it wouldn't even be totally purified by them, not even when they worked together. [AN: 'Sou' is the name for Buddhist priests]

"Naraku decided right as I went into labor that it was a good time to attack, eliminating my uses and keeping Miroku distracted. Even with all the priests and priestesses, we were losing when Kagura decided to show up. She saved our lives, and my Kagome and I made it through the night. Kanna is still on Naraku's side, but the child doesn't even seem to have a soul. Kagura, though…She said she would work for no one, but only wants to destroy Naraku for making her do his dirty work. Ever since that, she's worked with us. A few other youkai have come to our side—the first was Royakan. Miroku and Inu-Yasha and Shippô recognized him, and his excuse was that he owed us a favor. Kôga has been on our side from the start, even if he doesn't get along with Inu-Yasha. As long as they don't get into an ego-match, they work together well enough. There's a few more, but I don't remember them right now. For the past eight years, Inu-Yasha has been leading the war against Naraku, with the priests and priestesses sending him reports of any activity. He's masterminded the whole thing—there's a web of eyes and ears all over Japan, with him at the head. Sesshoumaru even came over to our side, did I tell you? He decided that since he has a sword that can break the Tetsusaiga but if he does break the Tetsusaiga it'll bring Inu-Yasha's youkai blood, the whole thing is worthless and he might as well get rid of Naraku. Probably for lack of something better to do, the damn poodle. At least he's useful when it comes to strategy and fighting. Shippô's working as the spymaster—what better spy could you get than a kitsune, a born trickster? He grew into his full powers, and he's the best spy Inu-Yasha's got. Besides, the little charmer could get gossip out of a fern if he wanted to—he's that good. There've been a few major battles, and as you can tell Miroku and I chose to stay with Kaede to watch over the well and guard the village, but that was partly because we wanted to raise our children near here. Nothing's happened for almost a year now, and we're starting to wonder if Naraku got back-stabbed or Kagura made a move she never told us about—we don't see her much and she's too in love with the wind to remember to tell us anything, so we'd never know—but he's probably just waiting for us to get lazy and then shock the crap out of us."

"Wait, wait, wait—I know it's not here, because I don't sense it, but where is the Shikon Jewel?"

__

"Dammit!" There was a thud and a grumble, and then a tall, dark-haired man wandered into the room, his eyes closed in pain as he rubbed the top of his head. "I swear, Sango, we've got to raise that door frame by a little, at least! Inu-Yasha was in the worst mood I've seen for him in six months, and a bump on the head is the last thing I—HOLY SHIT!"

Sango smacked him arm. "Miroku, not in front of the children!"

He ignored her. "Holy shit, Kagome-san, when the hell did _you_ show up?!"

"Hi to you too," she said placidly. "Just today. Sango-chan's been filling me in on what happened these last thirteen years."

"I should hope so," he said, collapsing into a chair and running a hand through his hair. "Well, looks like things are going to start lightening up around the castle, then! Inu-Yasha's going to go nuts when I tell him—"

"No!"

He stopped, surprised. "Kagome-san, I thought you and him had a—a—a _thing._"

"We do! I mean, we did! I mean…oh, hell." She halted and thought for a second. "What I mean is, I saw something that I shouldn't have, thought there was no need for me, and left. Partially because I thought Inu-Yasha wouldn't need me anymore. For thirteen years, I've been blocking out what happened then and tried to convince myself that I didn't still care about him, but…I—I'm just not sure of anything anymore."  
"You want to adjust for a bit before taking anything on," he translated. "That's perfectly understandable."

"And…I need to know if—if I'm forgiven." When her comrades of yesteryear rushed to assure her she was, she stopped them and said, "He may say that, or act like that, but I need to see it for myself. I need to see it all for myself, as myself, and not as the little girl he probably remembers." She could only stare at the tabletop.

A hand clasped her shoulder warmly. "I know what you mean, and I understand," Miroku said quietly. "I can tell the last thirteen years were no easier for you than for us—less, probably, for we didn't have to make the sacrifice you made. You will stay here until you wish to see Inu-Yasha, and as yourself." 

Sango came to stand by her, her gaze filled with sadness for her friend and joy at her return. "This is unquestionably the best place for you right now, and we can make it so you may view things as they are when you wish to leave for—Miroku, stop it!" There was a smacking sound and he jerked his hand back, holding it close to his chest and looking wounded. "I swear, you would think he'd gotten over it by now…You aren't setting a good example for the children, you buffoon."

Kagome burst into laughter, and after a moment, they joined her. It seemed some things would never change.

____  
It was dawn the next day when she rose, slipping out from underneath the futon and quietly stepping outside. So Inu-Yasha had continued with his battle against Naraku, had he? After eight years of being the general of a holy war (as she liked to think of it), she wondered how on earth he'd managed to hide his time-of-the-month complex from not only Naraku but everyone else so long. And what was he like now? If Sesshoumaru had finally agreed to work with him, did it mean Sesshoumaru was either bored or actually doing the right thing, or was Inu-Yasha…? No, that couldn't be. But she'd never found out where the Jewel was…

Could he be a full youkai? Surely Sango or Miroku would have told her if he were, even though they'd been busy last night regaling their children with tales of their mighty deeds as youkai hunters, particularly any stories that involved Kagome. They were trying to cheer her up, and reminding her of the time they had thought Inu-Yasha and Miroku were spying on the two girls in the hot springs helped, but she was still melancholy. Her mood would spread to the others if she had kept it up, though, so she allowed herself to be distracted, particularly by the children. 

After the little girl, Mai, had said that Kagome-Miko-nee-sama was a shiny person, things took an interesting twist. "What do you mean by that?" she had asked.

"Kagome-Miko-nee-sama has a light inside her," she said shyly. "Like Kaede-Miko-sama, but bigger."

After asking permission from Miroku and Sango and of course Mai herself, Kagome looked deeper into the girl and found what she suspected. 

"She's got Miko powers," she had said. "Not as much as I have, but close enough that with a weapon, her hand, and her spiritual abilities combined, she'll be one of the most deadly youkai hunters around." Turning to the other children, she asked if any of them saw a 'light' in her like Mai did, or felt something around her. Risako had a little—enough to guard against minor demons—and Kagome had a little more than that, but the twins didn't see or feel a thing. 

"They will get enough training from Kaede-sama," she'd decreed, and that had been the end of the discussion, but it was more than that. Mai was very strong, and depending on how soon she was trained in both the Taiji-ya art and her powers, Naraku would definitely have something to worry about. 

Assuming he was still around, of course. She was going to do her best to prevent that, given that he'd stolen thirteen years from her. But first she had to see Inu-Yasha. 

"There is an herb," Sango said quietly, her voice just above a whisper, "that has a very fascinating juice. We only discovered this a few days ago, while Miroku was still gone to report to Inu-Yasha, so Inu-Yasha doesn't know about it."

"Did I wake you?" Kagome said guiltily.

"No, I rise at dawn every day. Can't be helped. But this juice, not only does it smell enough like a perfume to trick anyone, but also it will completely mask the scent of a human from youkai. A blind one attacked while Risako was gathering flowers, she got the juice on her hands, and it couldn't find her. We've done several tests with it, and it never fails." She paused. "Kaede will provide you with the clothes of a Miko, and you will take my cloak. The hood will cover most of your face. No one will recognize you, and you can go on Kirara. She knows the way—two day's walk southwest, one day on her. I'll have the children move your supplies to a pack coated in the juice."

"Thank you," Kagome whispered. "I need to resolve this before I can do anything."

"I know," replied Sango. "Tell the guards that you are a new Miko and that Sango sent you, and they will let you in without any trouble."

"I will," she promised. "Tell me…You've mentioned the Shikon Jewel several times since I came, but where is it now?"

"Inu-Yasha has it," Sango answered. "He refuses to use it, and simply guards it. It's the only reason Naraku even bothers with him."

"He never used it to become a full youkai?!"

"No—I don't even think it's ever crossed his mind." Sango sighed, then said, "Kagome-chan, listen. When you left, we all knew it was because you were tricked horribly, and Inu-Yasha was furious, but it just wasn't enough. You were a threat—possibly the biggest of us all—to Naraku, because you nearly destroyed him when you didn't even _know_ how to use your powers. These past thirteen years, I think we've all been—been waiting for this, for you to come back. The other Sou and Miko, they're good, but they're _nothing_ compared to you. This whole war has been almost entirely about holding Naraku down until you or someone like you came and got rid of the damn monkey once and for all. We've been _waiting_ for you, Kagome-chan, and now that you're here, things are going to change."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One curved claw traced over the paper, surprisingly gently but obviously mindful of the object's age. It was one of the two papers the leader of the resistance always kept on him, two of the four last vestiges of Kagome he had.

This one had been left on his bed, beside the Shikon Jewel—another token. It bore but one word, proclaiming to him a command he had yet to follow, but it was more; for it was also Kagome's last action in his time.

Impossibly straight characters gave him one last order, one word: "CHOOSE."

He had three other reminders of her. One was the Shikon Jewel, which he'd guard until either he died or she came. The second was the rosary he still wore around his neck. It wouldn't activate unless she said the _word_, and he still couldn't lift it…but he wasn't even sure if he wanted to.

The last was the other piece of paper she'd left. Nine short words, and her soul was caught on the page. _"I will miss you all. May you find happiness." _That was Kagome: forever thinking of others' well-being, never her own.

A pang grew inside him, but he shoved it away. He'd see her again, even if he had to live all the way to her time to do it. Like a quiet king, he departed for the Great Hall. It was time to hear reports.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That girl. That _damn_ girl. He'd sent a minor servant after her, hoping that after all the time that had passed the little bitch had grown complacent, and the worthless youkai shows up dead. And no visible mark on her of Kikyô's incarnate, just a decapitated corpse. She could have been killed by one of the god-damn Taiji-ya. He should have crushed that annoying little girl and her boomerang before she could spawn an heir or six. _And_ each had a hell-hole in their hand. Not one of his smartest moves.

"Face it, Naraku-sama. You've lost your touch." The speaker was a young demon, an upstart who lusted after the power his lord possessed but had neither the aptitude nor the mind to wield it. Strong, but replaceable. 

No, no, no. It would not do to lose his temper with this whelp. Instead, perhaps he could expend him on a mission that would prove whether or not the Miko botch was back.

He'd never intended for her to return. That alone would skew his plans—particularly a little surprise he'd kept in storage for such a long time now…But with her possible return, now was the time to act, before she could reach the annoying mongrel-demon who still had _his_ jewel…

"Bring the paper," he commanded. A youkai slave presented him with an envelope, the paper yellowed and crackling with age. Smiling, Naraku opened it and grinned viciously at the single, long, slender black hair. Oh, did he have plans for this…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kagome walked along the road, Kirara at her side. With her bow and arrows, the traditional guise of a Miko, and the staff Sango's Kagome had shyly presented her with, she felt every bit like a convincing Sengoku Jidai Miko. Her hair had grown to her waist, so the shortness of it that had set her apart before was no longer an issue now.

She had chosen to let Kirara rest before they really set out, and so was walking instead of riding the cat demon who, like Sango said, knew the way. Kirara mewed and transformed into her true self, and Kagome said, "If you're ready, then let's go." She climbed on, resting her staff over her knees. The younger Kagome had done a beautiful job with the wood, elegant carvings spiraling around its length and scrolling over it, every inch sanded and polished smooth and coated in water-resistant resin. It had clearly taken time, patience, and care, and Kagome felt guilty because of it. If only she'd come back sooner, she could have been more of a part of the children's lives. To them, she was a legend, a hero, when she just felt like a coward. From their awed respect for her and quarrels over who sat next to her and who took her dishes and whose room she got to sleep in, they'd grown up with tales of the old group's adventures as much as they had with eating and walking. Tales of Inu-Yasha's strength, Miroku's continuing determination in the face of death, Shippô's small bits of courage, Sango's loss and gaining; all those they could see for themselves and know not just the 'hero' but the human inside. For her, though, they'd never known her, and all they had were the stories of times long past and of who she used to be, of the brave young woman that she had been. Kagome could only hope she wouldn't let them down.

They passed the day in near-silence. Remembering Sango's parting words—"Give Naraku no signs that you've returned: none of your foreign contraptions, no using your Miko powers; not until you've reached Inu-Yasha."—she built a small campfire in a clearing when they stopped for the day and only ate the food she'd brought without wrappers, then slept bundled in the cloak and with Kirara at her side. The neko-youkai would know if something was near.

The next morning was horridly damp and chilly. She ate a light breakfast, reapplied the juice, and set out, walking at first to warm herself up. The sky was cloudy, the wind sluggish, the air slightly humid. Something was setting her on edge, and Kirara was no better off, clinging uneasily to her shoulder and glancing around, tail bristling. Whatever was out there wasn't showing itself, so Kagome kept walking, listening and straining for any sense of youkai.

Tenuous silence stretched on for fifteen minutes as she paced southwest down the road, waiting for any sign. She wouldn't use her Miko powers unless she absolutely had to…

A hand clamped over her mouth, another encircling her shoulders. Youki blasted into existence in her mind, but it was too late; her attacker dragged her off the road and into the dense foliage by the side.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Something wasn't right.

Inu-Yasha didn't know what it was; all he knew was that _something_ wasn't right.

He shifted in his chair, uneasy. There were no reports to hear anymore, and with that sense of _wrong _distracting him, there was no way he could concentrate on the map in front of him.

__

If Kagome were here, you know she'd nag you until you went and played the hero again.

That settled it. He couldn't try to think things out the way he wanted to until he'd done something about whatever it was, or it would plague him until he went crazy.

Funny how it was that Kagome brought out the best in him, even when she wasn't there. As he walked down the empty hall, glad to be doing _something,_ he let out a sigh. Things were starting to stir up a bit more than usual in a certain area, so maybe he'd send someone to check it out.

He ran into Sesshoumaru on his way out. Thirteen years had made them enough of allies to work together, but it had done too little to diminish the natural tension between the two. Still, it was better than it had been. "You didn't tell me you were back."

"Forgive me, little brother," Sesshoumaru said in his cold, dry voice. "Next time, I'll send plenty of warning so you can plan a welcoming celebration."

"See that you do," Inu-Yasha replied evenly, whereas ten years ago his response would have consisted of suggesting multiple (and either painful, impractical, or physically impossible) things his older brother should do to himself. "I'll hear from you later. I'm busy."

"I thank you for clarifying that," said Sesshoumaru. "I never would have guessed. We all know you make a habit of storming around with the Tetsusaiga merely for recreation, so one really couldn't tell."

"I'm sure there's sarcasm in there somewhere, but since you sound like that all the time we're starting to wonder if that's really just the way you talk," commented Inu-Yasha. "If you want to come with me, I'm not stopping you, but you'd better not get in the way." Without waiting for Seshoumaru's retort, he strode away.

Storm clouds were roiling unnaturally overhead, which wasn't a good sign. Whatever was coming was strong enough to manipulate the weather, something not to be taken lightly at all. It was slowly pointing towards the inevitable; whether or not he was glad for it Inu-Yasha wasn't sure.

There was nothing alive beyond the high walls of his fortress, only a barren wasteland until the land dipped beneath the tree line once more. The wind creeping over the rocky plain was stagnant and thick with an unmistakable scent and, snarling, Inu-Yasha drew the Tetsusaiga. Boiling white miasma burst from the charcoal-gray of the clouds like pus from a blister.

"Naraku," he growled softly through clenched fangs. The gong of warning vibrated over the fortress, proclaiming the arrival of a threat to those within.

Naraku himself landed gracefully, grinning a sleek vulture's grin. "Long time, no see."

"I'd normally give you thirty seconds to get your ass off my land, but that's be wasting thirty seconds of my time," he snarled in reply, shifting the Tetsusaiga.

"How…antisocial," Naraku mused. "I'd show some constraint if I were you, Inu-Yasha. After all, we wouldn't want to damage _this,_ would we?" He flicked a finger and a bank of miasma rolled away, revealing a dark-haired figure—

No. There was no way. 

__

"Kagome?" he whispered. She didn't look up, her eyes closed, and he suddenly saw the multitudes of injuries she was suffering from. Cuts ran up and down each arm, across her stomach and face, and on her legs; one arm dangled uselessly at an odd angle; her knees looked like they could hardly support her. Her face was twisted in pain and she didn't move, entangled in wires of some kind. Her breath was harsh, her skin white and pale, her hair matted and string-like with the sweat of agony.

"Now, I'd like the Tetsusaiga and the Shikon Jewel, and you'll get your lovely friend here." Naraku paused, then added, "Now."

Inu-Yasha was torn. Was this another of Naraku's illusions? Or had he somehow managed to rip Kagome from her time?

"Tsk, tsk," chided the other demon. "You take too long, Inu-Yasha." He gestured again, and this time she was lifted into the air with a pained streak. Lightning crackled down the wires and over her and she writhed, screaming. Her cry went on, and on, and on… [AN: Oo, Spongebob Squarepants is on!]

And then it stopped. He could still hear her breath in great, desperate gasps and knew she was alive, but for how much longer?

She weakly lifted her head, blood streaking from a cut under her eye, and begged, "Please…help me…"

That did it. Inu-Yasha narrowed his eyes, wondering exactly how he could hit Naraku with the Cutting Wind without catching Kagome. 

"Please tell me you aren't being fooled by this simplistic little ploy," Sesshoumaru said from behind him, voice bored.

"What are you _talking_ about?!" Inu-Yasha demanded, furious at being distracted.

"Does that thing _smell_ like the human girl to you, brother?" Sesshoumaru would have snorted—or stuck out his tongue, for that matter, had it not been so undignified. _"That_ is mud. A puppet, made from a hair of your wench's. Naraku can't control one he made in someone else's form, so he's just trying to goad you instead." He gave Inu-Yasha a withering look. "Idiot."

"She's not controlled?" he asked.

"No, _it_ is not being controlled. It's probably got the wench's personality, but none of her memories and most likely none of the Miko—"

__

CRACK!

A white blaze severed through the tentacles holding onto the Kagome-puppet and she fell to the ground. Inu-Yasha could see her wounds beginning to heal, though the blood was real; it smelt of the earth.

"Or, maybe because the real one was a Miko, Naraku accidentally replicated some of her powers." Sesshoumaru miraculously hadn't missed a beat.

It took Inu-Yasha three swings of the Tetsusaiga to put an end to the Naraku-puppet, but when he turned to the replica of Kagome, he couldn't bring himself to kill her. It _was_ Kagome lying there in pain, shuddering on the dirt and rocks. There was no way he could hurt her…

"Your human blood makes you too sentimental," Sesshoumaru scoffed, raising his claws.

"No!" Inu-Yasha put himself between the puppet and his brother. "She has powers. We can use that."

"If that's what you want." Whether or not it lived or died, it was of no consequence to him. He watched his foolish brother carefully pick up the girl-thing and start walking towards the fort. She didn't look a day older than the last time he'd seen her, thirteen years ago, another of Naraku's mistakes.

Her eyes slid open, and Sesshoumaru heard her murmur, "Who…am I?"

Inu-Yasha paused, then answered, "Daiji. Your name is Daiji."

__

'Great Compassion'? I suppose that works…Only my brother would give her such a silly name, however…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The redheaded young man set Kagome on her feet carefully, and she fought to catch her breath, grateful her hood had stayed up. "Sorry for the ambush, Miko-sama, but you're being followed," he said politely.

She lowered her voice an octave, just in case it was someone who knew her. She couldn't be too sure, after all "By whom?"

"I'm not sure. Give me a moment, please." The young man—he seemed about nine years younger than her—vanished with a pop, and there was a slight lull. _Must be a kitsune,_ she figured.

__

Not…Shippô, though, right?

Well, he was about seven when she'd left, and if thirteen years had passed…

He reappeared, looking smug. "Nasty piece of work. I took care of him though, Miko-sama, so you've got nothing to worry about now. Where are you headed?"

After a moment's hesitation she said, "I'm traveling to the lands of Inu-Yasha."

"Oh, another one on our side, huh? Good, we could use another Miko in Yokohama, the one there is a bit scatterbrained and she forgets to report…The name's Shippô, by the way. I'll go let Inu-Yasha know you're on the way."

"Don't bother yourself," she said quickly. "I have a ride—from Sango-sama, Kirara is with me. It would be a waste of your time, Shippô—san." She had to fight from calling him 'Shippô-chan' like she had used to. "I'll be there soon enough."

"Suit yourself." He bowed, saying cheerfully, "See you soon, ma'am."

She waited until his youki had vanished, then carried on.

It was a quiet ride to the mountain. She had gone to investigate the remains of the youkai who'd been following her and found them alarmingly close to where she'd been taken; whoever Naraku had sent was good enough to hide most of his youki but was obviously expendable. That alone gave her an idea of the strength Naraku had ascended to.

The fortress soon came into sight, a dark bead balanced on the crest of a barren, rocky mountain. As they neared, details starting showing up, and she had to grin slightly. _Gee, nothing says 'I love you' like a big, fat wall all around the building. The thing just screams 'Inaccessible.'_ Still, it was all done in the name of security, she knew.

Kirara landed a little ways from the gate and shrunk down to her normal size, leaping onto Kagome's shoulder. She strode forward, watching in satisfaction as the guardian priests crossed their weapons, barring her path. _Good, they know I could be in a disguise._ _Inu-Yasha taught them well._

"Halt! State your name and who sent you!"

"I am a Miko. I was sent by Sango-sama." She regarded them levelly, meeting their eyes.

"She's the real deal," a familiar voice called. Shippô appeared thirty feet over their heads, floating with ease. "I ran into her earlier. Naraku was having her followed, so she's probably pretty important."

"Arigatô gôzaimasu," Kagome called. 

"You may proceed, then." They lifted their glaives and she passed, noting a runner head toward the largest structure, most likely to tell Inu-Yasha of the new Miko.

Meanwhile, Inu-Yasha took his seat at the head of the Great Hall. Daiji was asleep at the moment, and he had to think of a way to tell everyone that Naraku was on the move again. There had been no definite signs or warnings this time, and there still weren't any. Security would have to be tightened, and maybe he should get some eagle-youkai to do some scouting. He'd need monitors on them to let them know if they were attacked, though, and he would have to consult the parents on whether any of their offspring could help…

"Inu-Yasha-sama, Sango-sama has sent another Miko," a gate runner announced quietly at his side. "Naraku was having her followed, so she may be important."

"She wasn't still being followed?"

"No, Shippô-sama killed the youkai."

So she hadn't killed it herself—none too powerful, perhaps. But still, another Miko was always helpful. "Send her in. Maybe I can send her to Yokohama."

The Miko and Sou were standing around, waiting for their hanyou leader to speak, when a woman appeared at the entrance. Her powers were of about medium strength, but something about them was finely tuned and controlled to a degree the like of which was unrivaled by any, as if there was more to them than they saw. She paced to the center of the back wall, directly across from the throne, and automatically they parted, forming an aisle. 

__

She sure knows how to make an entrance, Inu-Yasha reflected.

Whispers rushed through the hall—she was a walking contradiction. Her gait held the confidence of a warrior, yet the grace of a dancer. Her powers were strong, but there was more than they could see. All they could see was the bottom half of her face, but the soft lips spoke of beauty while the pointed chin proclaimed determination.

The strange Miko walked down carefully, then knelt before Inu-Yasha. Why was she kneeling? Most only bowed.

"What brings you here, Miko?" Inu-Yasha asked. He wasn't impressed by this display—not that much, anyway. 

"I am here to atone," she said emotionlessly. 

"For what?"

"A wrong I committed many years ago." Her hood still stayed down, and hushed murmurs flew fast and thick. What had she done? Was it something serious?

"And this was…?" Now even Inu-Yasha was interested. Who _was_ she?

"I did something I've regretted ever since." She took a deep breath, steeling herself, then pushed back her hood and looked straight into Inu-Yasha's eyes.

"Thirteen years ago, I deserted my friends."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**__**

::yawn:: I think I'll go do my homework now…

Haha, just kidding. Hate to leave you with that cliffy right there—actually, I love it cuz I'm evil—but I really do have to do my homework. Next chapter: Kagome is angry, Naraku schemes away, Inu-Yasha swears (hooray!), Rin makes an appearance, and Miroku thinks deep thoughts about why Inu-Yasha is so cranky all the time.


	3. Reasons to Care

To Rebuild the Lost Past

Chapter Two: Reasons to Care

**__**

I cannot tell you how hard it was to write this next part. I mean, really, how do you think Inu-Yasha really would react? I do want it to be realistic, after all. Anyway, things are going to get crazy in this chapter, and I'm not exaggerating. I mean, we've got Kagome, Kagome's clone/copy/thing (Daiji), and thenOkay, I'm not telling! It'd ruin the chapter! 

Of course, Miroku does get in some pretty good lines, though

Oh yes, and I'd like to apologize for all the typos in the last chapter. I stopped typing at the part where Inu-Yasha's looking at the notes Kagome left behind, and then I started typing again this Tuesday after school, giving me about an hour and a half each day; I was in a HUGE rush, as you can tell. So please don't think I am hopelessly illiterate, I just mistyped. 

Disclaimer: You want the truth? YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH! Actually, you probably can, it's not that difficult of a concept. I don't own this, but I do own a brother who communicates with milkshakes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't being in the Sengoku Jidai once more that did it. It wasn't the reunion with Sango and Miroku or Shippô, either.

It was when Kagome pushed her hood back and looked Inu-Yasha straight in the eye that the full weight of what her return meant came crashing down on her. She'd never thought of what she'd say if she came back, nor had it crossed her mind since the trip through the well. There was just this need to _see_ him, see if he forgave her.

He stared back, tawny-golden eyes wide and looking into her indigo ones, every bit as speechless as she.

The russet-haired kitsune came through a door, remarking cheerfully, "Why's everyone so quiet?" His electric blue eyes imparted mischief and honor, as well as a wicked sense of humor, as he swaggered over to Inu-Yasha. "What, you see a ghost OH MY _GOD_ IT'S KAGOME!" He pointed a shaking finger at her. "IT'S KAGOME!" Gaping he turned his gaze back to Inu-Yasha as if to confirm what he was seeing was real; his head swiveled back and forth between the two, punctuated by exclamations of "It's Kagome! It's _Kagome!"_

Her eyesight wavered and blurred, whispers sweeping throughout the hall. Could it be? Was this the legendary Lady Kagome?

Shippô's nose twitched, and he frowned. "Wait just a second, you don't smell like Kagome."

She tossed the bottle of herb-juice to him, forcing her voice to work, albeit shakily. "It hides human scent completely. Sango-chan found it a few days ago."

Inu-Yasha abruptly stood up and starting walking towards the door Shippô had used. Kagome watched him, surprised and suddenly hurt; did seeing her pain him? Should she really have come back?

He stopped halfway there and looked back at her. "Are you coming or not?" he asked, voice rougher than it had been. 

"Oh." She scrambled, ungainly, to her feet. "Right." 

He led her down a series of halls, completely silent. They were well-lit, giving her a view of how he'd grown since He still had the red fire-rat clothes, but they lacked the looseness they'd had before. Surely they weren't skintight by any means—she suddenly got a very interesting mental image of him in Riverdance-style leather pants and was very happy for a moment—but they weren't quite as baggy as they had been. He'd been tall and more narrow-shouldered than most of his opponents, but the years had taken him from a rather awkward adolescent hanyou (somehow he'd managed to avoid the acne, or maybe she'd missed that stage of his life) to an adult. An extremely attractive, broad-shouldered adult, true, but he had grown older in more way than one. How much had she changed to him? 

He pushed aside a screen, waited for her to enter, then shut it behind her. They climbed several flights of stairs, then stopped and turned down a hallway, then entered a room. 

There was a map on the wall of Japan, marked with red, blue, yellow, and green dots; a desk was in one corner, a table in the center, shelves full of scrolls, a set of cabinets along a wall. A broad window half-covered by an apparently movable lattice screen revealed a magnificent view of parts of the fort, the surrounding lands, and the rivers and lakes. A slight glow on the horizon lightened the sky, and she realized it was the well's aura. 

"Sango-chan told me everything that's happened since I left," her voice said automatically. Her mind, however, was busy running in circles, screaming, _OHMYGOD WHAT DO I DO NOW I'M ALONE IN A ROOM WITH HIM OHMYGOD WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO WHAT DO I DO?!_

"Everything?"  
"That you've held Naraku back since I've gone and that the Shikon Jewel is still around was the gist of it." 

"That about sums it up."

There was an uncomfortable bit of silence, and just to make it end she started babbling, staring out the window, almost overpowered by the intoxicating feeling of his youki. "I was being followed, but I guess Shippô's told you that already, and he killed it. And Naraku left someone to try to kill me outside the well, but Sango's Kagome killed her too—"

"Kagome—"

She didn't hear him. "And I didn't let him know I was back, because I haven't used any of the things from my time or used my Miko powers or let anyone see my face and—and—oh, god, I'm sorry I left, I didn't know he was still alive—"

"Kagome—"

"—If I'd known I would have been back in a flash, I didn't think you guys needed me, I swear, and I'm sorry I was so stupid—"  
A hand clamped over her mouth, and she stopped, astonished. He turned her to face him, an unreadable expression on his face. "Are you going to let me apologize or not?"

Her eyebrows shot up so high that someone could have bungee-jumped off of them.

"I'm sorry," he said slowly. "If I hadn't been tricked, you wouldn't have left. Don't deny it, I know you, Kagome. I'm sorry you had to go through what you did, and I'm sorry I let you, and I'm sorry I was that much of a halfwit for a second time."

There was a bit of silence as he waited for her response, their eyes locked. A muffled sound came from behind where his hand was still clamped over her mouth, and, blushing, he immediately let her go, embarrassed. "Sorry. Again."  
"No—no, no! Don't _say_ that! You _shouldn't_ be sorry, Inu-Yasha!" She looked frustrated. "It was my fault! I made a mistake!"

"Bullshit. What happened is that you got screwed by Naraku, I got screwed by Naraku—dammit, we've all been screwed by Naraku at one point or another!" Seeing her rather horrified, look, he added hastily, "Not like _that,_ you know what I'm talking about. He's completely wrecked our lives, some of us more than once, and that's why we're fighting him! Don't look at me like I'm a lunatic, Kagome, whenever I was thinking about what I was gonna do next I thought, What would Kagome say?' because you never did anything wrong! I'm supposed to be the immoral one and you're supposed to be the one convincing me to go help other people!" She didn't say anything, eyes on the ground, and he wondered desperately how much she'd changed in the thirteen years. _"Say_ something, Kagome!"

She lifted her eyes to his. "What you've done here is amazing," she said simply. "What you've done for these people is really, truly amazing. But I'm not a hero, I'm not some all-wise, knowing Buddha, and I'm not this mighty warrior, or a messiah, or a—a _god,_ like everyone thinks I am. So I can shoot an arrow. If it took all five of us at our strongest to kill Naraku, how can we do it again now? It's gonna take more than just fireworks from me to get rid of him, and how long will that last? And look at me! I'm just some silly woman from the future who spent the past thirteen years moping around and getting cheated on! You've spent them getting people that kill youkai to work side-by-side with them, doing something that _helps_ people—"

"Because of _you,_ Kagome. Dammit, bitch, if it weren't for you, I'd still be stuck to a tree, or dead, and Naraku would be running around free. Even if I were loose, I'd probably be out terrorizing some village. You changed me, Kagome, you changed everyone you came across for the better or helped get rid of them if they were too far gone, or saw that they could be helped and nearly killed yourself trying to save them. I didn't do it because it seemed like a good thing to do, Kagome. I did it because it's what I thought you'd do, and don't tell me you're good for nothing because we've all seen different. If you don't quit beating yourself up for something that wasn't your fault, I swear I'll knock you out and keep you on happy pills until you come to your senses."

"Yeah, nothing shows how much you care like drugs," came a sarcastic voice from the corner. Kagome could sense youki, but nothing was there. 

"Shippô, knock it off," Inu-Yasha sighed.

A giant pink blob appeared with a pop, hovering over and gnawing on Inu-Yasha's head. He punched it like a set of bagpipes, and Shippô de-transformed, scowling and rubbing his russet-haired crown. "You don't need to do it so hard!" 

"Get out of here, fox," he sighed. "We _were_ having a talk."

"Golly, I couldn't tell," the kitsune returned. "He's right, you're worth more than all those gabblers in the hall." He vanished again, youki fading, and Kagome had to hide a grin. At least the years had given Shippô awell, a sense of tact, to put it lightly. A little faulty, but at least it was a sense of tact. Maybe Inu-Yasha was right; blaming herself wouldn't get them anywhere for the time being. She'd think about it later. For now, she just looked over at Inu-Yasha.

He stared frankly back. He really was a leader, she realized. He didn't have the charisma Sesshoumaru all but oozed or the sly finesse of Shippô, but there was something there that not only would make people follow him, but that would make them _want_ to, and that would make them love him for it. "Don't look at me," he stated bluntly. "Took me thirteen damn years to think of _that_ speech. I'm not pulling out any clever remarks or bits of witticism any time soon, that's what Shippô and my brother are here for."

"I can live with that." She would have said more, but someone came to the door. 

"Inu-Yasha-sama, the Miko from Yokohama finally arrived, and she says there's been more youkai activity, but she wants to talk to you first."

"Inu-Yasha-sama, Sesshoumaru's growling at the cat youkai again."

"Inu-Yasha-sama—"

"Inu-Yasha-sama—"

"I held them off for as long as I could," Shippô said wearily, appearing with another pop. Kagome reflected upon the fact that with him around, it was like being in the Rice Crispies factory. "Now it's your turn to deal with them, I can't take it anymore."

Inu-Yasha sighed the sigh of the long-suffering and took a deep breath. Kagome, seeing this, clapped her hands over her ears in the nick of time, for he then bellowed, _"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!"_ Silence reigned for a brief, glorious moment, and he said wearily, "You, go move the cat youkai somewhere else or try to convince Sesshoumaru to go away. If he's a bigger pain in the ass than normal, tell him I'll seat him next to Inverted-Hair-Yura's sister the next time we have a meeting. You." He pointed to a firm-looking Miko. "Get the Yokohama woman up here, now." She left as he turned to the remaining three and demanded, "And what is so urgently dreadful that you couldn't deal with it on your own?"

A cringing man muttered, "The cook wants to know how many people we'll be serving tonight."

"Then count the names on the daily roster and add one. That isn't that hard, now was it?"

"One?"  
Inu-Yasha gave the man a you've gotta be kidding me, is there really a person alive that is so incredibly _stupid?_' and jerked his thumb at Kagome. 

The man nodded quickly and left.

"Now what do you want?" 

The man handed him a scroll. "This came direct from Daisuke-sama in the west, Inu-Yasha-sama." 

"Good, something that actually matters," Inu-Yasha grumbled. "What's he got to say now?" He slit the seal neatly with a claw and scanned the page, frowned slightly, and set it in a pile on the desk. "You may leave. And what's your issue of the day?"

The last woman met Inu-Yasha's eyes squarely. "Daiji-sama has awakened, tono."

"Daiji?" His expression turned from one of slight irritation to surprise. "Oh. I'llbe there in a moment."

The woman bowed and left. "Who's Daiji?" Kagome asked, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. Had he—had he found someone else? Had Sango shielded her from that, knowing what a blow it would be to her friend?

To her horror, Inu-Yasha winced slightly. "You may want to sit down for this." She sat. "Earlier today, Naraku—actually one of his puppets—came here. It was the first sign of action we've seen in over a year. Andhe tried to blackmail me." He paused, not looking at her, and she felt like she was separated from the world, all alone in a glass box and looking out. Naraku must have captured his—his—"He had you. It was a puppet—I guess he'd found one of your hairs somewhere—and he'd beaten up on her pretty badly. I couldn't tell the difference, but Sesshoumaru could. She got loose—Sesshoumaru says if it's a puppet of someone else, Naraku can't control it, and I guess he accidentally replicated some of your powers, and we killed the Naraku puppet. She doesn't know who she is, or what she is, and she asked what her name was so I just called her Daiji. And she was asleep, healing, last time I checked."

"Sothat's it." Her relief never showed, her joy didn't appear. Instead, a slight smile graced her features. "Well, now I guess my vote counts for two. What are we going to do with her?"

"I don't know," he admitted, rubbing his forehead. "I haven't really thought about it."

"Maybe I should tell her about the copy thing," said Kagome, her voice thoughtful. "I mean, if she really is a duplicate of me, she'll be bound and determined to prove that we're not the same, and I don't doubt it. No copy is perfect, and she's got a soul, even if it is artificial, so I don't think we're the same person at all." _Like Kikyô and me, but I'm not bringing that up if he isn't._

"Well, I don't know what to do," Inu-Yasha said, leaning back in his chair.

Something crashed through the window, and a blur of mottled brown came to an abrupt halt right in front of Kagome, brilliant turquoise eyes blazing, dark hair pulled away from the wolf-youkai's eyes. "Kagome!" 

__

"Kouga?" 

This, in fact, proved to be a true statement, as he promptly seized her hands, bright eyes melting to a syrupy mess. "It sucks without you," he said mournfully, obviously attempting to be eloquent and failing miserably. "Every minute while you were gone was like aa year without sunshine. Or dinner," he added thoughtfully. "No dinner for a year would be bad._ I_ could survive it, of course, but that dog-turd over there wouldn't have a chance."

__

"Enough, Kouga," Inuyasha growled, detaching him from Kagome. "She's busy."

"With what, an invisible pot?" he retorted. "She doesn't look busy to me."

"Actually, I've got to go check on my clone—I mean my copy," Kagome said tactfully. Of course they didn't know what a clone was; heck, they probably couldn't even pronounce it. [AN: This is true, due to the facts that there are no single consonants such as t and h in the Japanese alphabet, only ta, chi, tsu, te, to, and ha, hi, fu, he, ho, with the exception of the character for nm; and that there is no l' or c'. Clone' would be spelled kuron most likely, with the u either not said at all or only briefly pronounced, and the r said more like lr' than r' in essence, clone' would be spelled kuron and pronounced k(u)lron. Facts o' the day; golly, I love Japanese class.] "Maybe we can talk later."

"Okay." He leapt out the window again and Inu-Yasha glared resentfully at the mess of the intricate lattice that was now in pieces on the floor. "Sixth time this month," he muttered. "I'm going to start taking it out of his free time."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So let me get this straight." Daiji took a deep breath, then said slowly, "I was made by Naraku to trick Inu-Yasha. He accidentally replicated some of your powers also, and that's how I got free. I'm really just a copy of you, but as far as we know, he can't control me like a puppet of himself."

"Yes," Kagome said hesitantly, "but I don't think we really are identical, Daiji-san. People are made according to how they react to the things they go through, and I will never suffer what Naraku did to you. You will always be you, and I will always be me."

"But being ait gives me _some_ advantages, right?" She stared at her hand. "I mean, I can heal super-fast, I know, but is that it?"

Kagome raised her eyebrows and thought for a moment. "Well, once Naraku's hand got sliced-and-diced and it came back together and reattached, so maybe you can do thatand you live on until someone destroys the wooden doll inside. That's about all I know."

"Not so bad," Daiji said with a slow smile. "It's like being a real person, butnot." Yet her eyes betrayed her, looking infinitely sad.

Kagome took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "There are people who are so twisted and bent that they are more monster than anything, and the only thing that ties them to humanity is their form. There are youkai that are treated like monsters, but are harmless and friendly." She swallowed, remembering Jinenji. "It's not who or what you are, it's the soul inside. And I don't doubt that you've got an amazing one."

"Thanks." Daiji stood and moved to the window, her face still paler than normal, and her shoulders shook. 

Yet nothing came from her eyes, for puppets couldn't cry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I think I know why Inu-Yasha is so pissed off all the time," Miroku said thoughtfully.

Sango turned around, still keeping a good grip on Kirara's fur. The aforementioned hanyou had sent Kirara back with a summons for them, and they'd left the children in Kaede's care. "What's that?"

"I think I know why Inu-Yasha always looks so angry." 

"Do you now." Her eyes narrowed and you could almost hear her scrutinizing his tone of voice to try and detect any hint of perversion.

"Yes, it's not that difficult of a concept, really." His eyebrows raised, making his face the picture of innocence and sympathy. "The man's technically twenty-nine. If I was that old and still hadn't gotten any, I'd be that cranky all the time too." Ignoring Sango's choked squeak as she fought off terrible mental images, he added, "All that ferocity that comes out when he fights, that's just gotta be pent-up sexual frustration. What's with that look, Sango, you're not—hey! HEY!"

To anyone watching the giant cat soar over the hills, they also noted the small purple-and-black blotch that fell rapidly from it, cursing blackly and screaming bloody murder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, the room she'd been given was nice enough. The only problem was a complete lack of anything to do—or more like complete lack of anything to do that didn't require authorization from Inu-Yasha first. The worst part was that she couldn't sense him unless she was very close now; there were too many youkai in the fortress for her to distill his youki from the rest except within relatively close proximity. 

Sitting heavily on the futon, she tried to meditate. From what she'd heard so far, Naraku apparently hadn't really thought out the scheme with Daiji. After all, if he couldn't control her, she would be something of a one-shot deal, particularly if someone saw through it. And it wouldn't be too hard to tell the difference with Sesshoumaru's nose and her increased regeneration abilitiesSomething about this wasn't right, Naraku was far more meticulous than this

Flares of youki kept billowing up, like soup bubbling in a pot, and she sighed. It was all distracting her, the conflicting Miko powers and Youki, and she needed to get somewhere where she could clear her head. Getting to her feet again, she left the room and wandered around, trying to find an area a little less—choked, it seemed. 

Eventually, the only solace she could find was at the highest reach of the castle, where the rooftop was flat and wide enough to walk—or sit—on. Eagle youkai roosted here, but they were all out scouting with the exception of the nestlings, whose powers were so minimal that they didn't even register with her except on the most finite of levels. Here, she was above the clamoring discord of the fort's energies, and for the first time in days she had time to sit down on something that wasn't moving and think. What was Naraku up to? Why throw Daiji at them?

Something picked up on the edge of her senses, and she blinked. Something was coming nearer, something that was on another level altogether from the youkai here. 

Then it was within a hundred yards of her, moving impossibly fast, even faster than Sesshoumaru. Her heart pounded furiously, eyes widening, and she wished vehemently that she'd not been stupid enough to leave her bow and arrows behind. Instead, she formed a dart of white power and shot it at whatever was coming. It neatly dodged and she fired another one, adjusting them to track it.

The woman came to a halt over her head, glowing gray eyes imperious. Pulling out a mirror, she tried to aim it at Kagome, who ducked behind a nest. The chick inside, feeling it shake, started squealing, but she didn't dare touch it and risk the parents' wrath. Undoubtedly Naraku had sent her to go ensure she was there, and it was only further proof that he didn't know she was back for sure.

She'd need to make sure it stayed that way, then. The warning gong's absence evidently meant no one had spotted them; Kagome would have to kill her quickly and simply without letting that mirror catch her, for it would undoubtedly reflect back to Kanna, who'd be holding it up for Naraku to see. 

It was time to see if the fighting lessons she'd taken were going to pay off. Ripping off the sleeves neatly—they only got in the way—and using a spell-blade to saw off the _hakama_ legs at the knee, she scrambled around the outer edge of the roof, hanging onto a gargoyle for balance, then dropping down, hanging from one of the ropes that secured the nests. The woman was fast; she'd need to find a way to use that against her. Glancing down, she saw the ropes extended another fifty feet or so and came to a halt about twenty feet below where she thought Inu-Yasha's planning room might be; there were logs protruding around the fifty-foot mark, and the rope was wrapped around one, then dangled down from there. If only she could shatter the mirror, she'd be able to work freely, but unless she was mistaken, it would take a Miko as powerful as she to break it—doubtless Naraku had made it that way. 

The answer came to her as she studied the rope hanging down so far below her. Letting out a loud scream, she dropped, then caught the rope again. There was the woman; she hovered too far away for the mirror to see her clearly. She hid her face in the remnants of her sleeves and clung to the log, listening for the rush and using her sixth sense. 

The she-youkai shot towards her, fast as lightning, but right before she struck Kagome, she let go again, dropping far enough to be completely clear. There was a shriek as her huntress impaled herself on the sharpened end of the log, and she tried to keep away from the blood, knowing it would make the rope slippery. The youkai wasn't dead yet, and once she'd gotten back to the logs, she hauled herself up, then touched two fingers to the back of the woman's neck—her head had gone through the window and couldn't be seen.. There was a white flash, and she let out a soft cry, then went still, and then the lattice on the screen gave out and with a crunch it crumpled to the floor. The woman's body slid free and fell, the mirror's surface now dull and gray. 

Inu-Yasha was standing by the wall with the map of Japan on it. He glanced at the streaks of blood, the ruined shoji screen, and Kagome, who'd completely mutilated her Miko clothes, and said dryly, "I hope that that was one of Naraku's spies, because if it was one of our people, someone needs to work on her people skills."

"He's trying to make sure I'm here," she said wearily, heartily wishing she wasn't now gritty, sweaty, and covered in youkai blood. "That one had a mirror, he's trying to find me."

"Then the next time he sends someone, flip him off before you blow em to bits," Inu-Yasha suggested bluntly. "He's nervous now, Kagome, and seeing you here's gonna scare the piss outta him. Put a little doubt in his ranks, they only want to get their share of the fun, and seeing that maybe they'll lose out on this one will make them think twice. Naraku's a damn strong demon, and he's a bitch to try to outthink, but he's just a demon, and you scare him." He paused, then grinned. "No, wait. We'll handle the next few ones he sends, and _then_ you can scare the piss out of him. Let word get around about how he's been trying to find you, and he can't be sure for once. _Then_ when he sees you, word will get around that he got scared shitless over that, and that'll be even better." He looked extremely smug. 

"What were you looking at?" Kagome asked, temporarily forgetting how incredibly filthy she was.

"Come over here and see for yourself." He pointed to the map. "Each round pin stands for the Sou or Miko that is in that area. Red are low-level, yellow are medium, and green are fairly strong." Moving a claw down, he stopped at Yokohama. "There's a low-level Miko here. She just got in today, a week late, and she said there's been a lot of demon activity around this area. The square pins are demons reported, same color coding, black dot if they've been slain." The Yokohama area was thick with green and yellow pins.

"So you think Naraku's there?"

"The opposite." This time, he indicated an area in the mountainous area, at a small town called Maebashi. The guardian was medium-level, and the youkai pins were surprisingly very low. "This is typical youkai fodder. Around this time, it should be swarming with them, but it isn't. It's just a small town with a Sou who's not too powerful, and there's no reason for them to leave it alone. Naraku's given us two places, one that's swarming with youkai when it shouldn't be, and one that's got none of them when it should have. Both pretty suspicious, and he wants us to keep an eye on them. But that leaves the area behind us pretty open, if we're just focusing on that."

Now he pointed to the mountainous area on the left. "A lot of the youkai he's sent are wind demons, fast ones, ones that use thunder or lightning, things like that. They live in the mountain ranges, and this is the place where I just lost a Miko. I had another one in that area, because it was looking fishy, and she has higher levels than the one who's gone. She says that there's _no_ natural youki in the mountains of Kiso Valley, and there's always some kind of action up there. _And_ the ones that are messing with Yokohama aren't local, they're illusion-snow demons, which are disguising themselves as local demons. I put one of my eagle-youkai down there, they can't be fooled by illusions, and that's what they're reporting. Naraku is trying to make us worry about the two areas over there and sneak up on us from behind. He's even having any attackers shift directions so it looks like they're coming from Maebashi or Yokohama."

"Since when did you pick up on strategy?" she asked, amazed. It all made sense, and she probably would have put it together herself eventually, but Inu-Yasha had always been more shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later than the thinking type. 

He shrugged. "I had to." Taking a closer look at her, he added, "There's a bath through that door. I'll get some new clothes for you."

"Thanks." She followed in the direction he'd pointed in and found herself in a simple but not ugly washroom, the bathtub itself more than large enough. She supposed he used it for people like her who were tired, dirty, and possibly bloody, and didn't want to walk all the way to the springs the fort was built over; or, in her case, have to wander around until they found them.   
A soak in hot water did more than enough for her frayed nerves. A young neko-youkai had come in with a bathrobe and a stack of towels, explaining that they were resizing a set of robes for her, and so she wrapped herself in the bathrobe and left the room, a towel around her hair. 

Just as she'd come out, another door slid open to reveal Sango, Miroku, and Kirara in her small form. "So, Inu-Yasha," Miroku said cheerfully, "You had sex yet?"

Kagome, who had no clue what he was talking about but a good notion over what he was implying, blushed a brilliant red, which then caught Miroku's eye. "Kagome, you made it!" Taking in her current state of dress, he added, "Well, that settles _that_ question."

Muffled yelps and cries of protest could be heard from the room, right before that same purple-and-black blotch was seen hurled out the window again.

[AN: Miroku has trouble with falling out/off of things, doesn't he?]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The great bone-white eye of the moon graced night's dark cloak, its beams turning the thin wisps of clouds into silvery fingers gripping the diamond stars. The castle was much quieter at night, much less chaotic, and Kagome appreciated it as she wandered its halls like a lost soul: she needed desperately to think. 

A door partially screened by a rack of weapons caught her eye. She carefully wriggled inside, drawn by the fact that it couldn't be used much or else there wouldn't be a weapons rack in front of it, and found herself in a dim passageway. It led to another, and another, all twisting and turning, some lit, others not. Once, she crossed a barren courtyard, glancing up only to find a familiar silhouette stark black against the moonlight, standing over his fort, back to her, fifty feet over her head. He looked every bit as alone as she; yet, she didn't call out his name, not knowing why but continuing on after a moment.

Golden eyes were lit by the white light as they marked the young Miko hurrying into the next building. 

Her journey finally ended in a small, simple garden, clearly tended by someone with little relative skill but the stubbornness to persist. A tree dominated over the grounds, nearly identical to the Goshinboku. Completely disregarding the stone bench beneath a stand of bamboo—and the strict rules of how a Miko should treat her clothing—she hiked up her crimson _hakama_ and climbed nimbly to a perch among its branches. The star-encrusted sky glowed darkly through its leaves; she idly wondered how many of those millions of lights would transcend time and shine on to her lifetime. Would any start shining _after_ this time and be apparent only in her world, too?

"You should be asleep."

She nearly fell out of the tree with an undignified eep. Perhaps she was more tired than she'd thought, or maybe it was the clogging effect of all the youki around, but she hadn't sensed Inu-Yasha's presence at all until right then. Righting herself with an inner sigh and feeling her face turn a brilliant scarlet, she muttered grumpily, "One of these days you're going to give me a heart attack doing _just_ that, and then we'll see how well you do fighting Naraku."

He cracked a slight smile and lowered himself onto the branch with practiced ease. "I don't think I'll test that theory out. Why aren't you getting some rest?" 

"Not tired." She struggled to think of something to say, some way to fill the still air, but nothing came. The silence stretched on; she wanted to rest her head on his shoulder and close her eyes, breathing in the scent of the night, but her pride and the demand of a twenty-nine-year-old's conduct forbid it. And so she went on to the b' plan: if all else fails, lie. "I was remembering when I got mad for the last time before my training."

"Yeah, and you nearly killed me, Shippô, and Kirara before passing out," he said dryly.

"And then you dragged me to the nearest priestess and wouldn't leave until I—how was it you phrased it?"

" Fixed it.'"

"Until I fixed it', that's right." At sixteen, she'd mastered powers ancient masters of the holy arts would never dream of possessing. 

Well, it always made life that much more interesting.

"Three months to learn that, three months without tests and _my_ century," she sighed. _The best three months of my life._

"You could've blown up Mt. Fuji if you didn't start getting them under control," he returned. 

"And what a shame that would be." There was no response for a long moment.

"Remember the time I turned full demon?" Inu-Yasha said finally. She looked at him, startled, and nodded. His eyes were distant, a slight smile of memory on his lips. "I was pretty far goneand the only thing that brought me back was the Osuwari'." He let out a short laugh. "This damn necklace probably saved everyone's life. Saved enough people's already."

"Does it bother you?" she asked quietly. "I could say it right now, and you'd never know until too late."

"It used to," admitted the hanyou. "But I had a thirteen-year break from the last time it happened, and you haven't used it yet, so I figure it doesn't matter." His grin turned smug—a bit too smug.

"Really." A hint of the old mischief in her flared up. "Osuwari!"

Unfortunately, Inu-Yasha had seized her arm as she said it, and with a shriek she toppled from the branch too. He broke her fall, arms loosely sliding around her in automatic protection, and she felt his chest rumble as he muttered, "Bitch," and sat up, leaning against the trunk of the tree.

"Serves you right," she shot back, somehow unable to make her legs move. Could have been because she didn't want to. For that matter, his arms weren't going anywhere either. Looking down at him, she asked again, "Does it really bother you?"

He shrugged as best he could with his arms still around her and didn't make a verbal response, eyes averted. 

She reached up and took the necklace with both hands, then carefully snapped the string. The beads rolled down his _haori_ and onto the ground as he looked down, bewildered. "There," she said quietly. A smirk on her face, she added impishly, "Jewelry isn't your look, it's your shemale brother's. Same with lip gloss. And eyeliner. And—" The rest of the sentence vanished as her mouth was covered by Inu-Yasha's.

She'd kissed and been kissed by her boyfriends before, but nothing came close to this, with her heart pounding and her blood on fire, the surprise of the whole thing adding anotherwell, perk. Before it had been almost a _duty_ she was performing, but thisthis was unbelievable. So this was what it was like to truly love someone and have them love you in return He was pulling her closer and she wasn't fighting it, his arms tightening—never had it felt this right. _Hell, I should've taken the necklace off a LOT sooner!_

"Ah, Spring," a familiar voice said jovially. "The time when a young man's thoughts turn to—"

They flew apart, both blushing furiously, and the next few minutes consisted of Miroku pleading for his life, Inu-Yasha yelling that the only thing his thoughts were turned on was killing him slowly and painfully, and Kagome realizing that _that_ was where her poetry book had gone. 

"Inu-Yasha-sama?" A messenger appeared at the entrance to the garden, completely unfazed by the sight of his leader holding his closest friend up by the front of his robes in one hand and a suspiciously sharp-and-pointy-looking branch of bamboo in the other. 

He dropped both unceremoniously, ignoring Miroku's few choice words he spat out as he got a face-full of sand, leaving a rather interesting implant in the rock-and-sand garden. "Yes?"

"There's a Miko at the front gates who demands to see you," he said tonelessly. "She says her name is Kikyô."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**__**

Oooh, what a lovely place to leave this offI'm tempted, very temptedNah! I'll find a better cliffhanger and stop there!

Continue with the story!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kagome froze, the blood draining out of her face. Noit couldn't beJust as Inu-Yasha had finally shown something like love for her—the fates couldn't be so cruel—

Now, if it truly was Kikyô, would he return to her? Or stay with her, Kagome, the living one?

She didn't catch a glimpse of Inu-Yasha's face as he leapt to the top of the nearest roof and peered down, but Miroku did: it had been first surprised, then uncertain, then stony and blank when he'd jumped. What changes could this bring? A demoness working with them—but she _was_ a former Miko, and a powerful one. He paused then, remembering with a sinking heart how exactly Kagome had been deceived and the reason the war had stretched on for so long: she'd thought Inu-Yasha had Kikyô and didn't need her.

He looked back at the young woman, leaning against the tree. Her eyes were strangely empty, and a pulse ran through the ground, a white shimmer starting to ripple around her.

"Kagome-san?" he asked carefully, wondering if she was about to flay him alive and use his skin as a new wall tapestry.

She turned those terrible eyes to him, and the white fire in them died. "I'm alright," she said slowly. The feeling of lightning in the air faded away, and he heaved an invisible breath of relief. She was so very powerful that angering her was not to be taken lightly, and he'd never seen her so close as right then.

Kagome leaned back and closed her eyes. A brief taste of heaven, and then it was always ripped from her. She loved Inu-Yasha like no one else, but if that meant letting him be with Kikyô to be happy, then that was what she'd do. It was what she had to do. He may have cared for her, but no matter what, Kikyô always had to come first.

"Kagome-san." The priest's voice made her open her eyes again. "You have the patience of a god."  
"I know," she said tiredly. "Maybe that's what's wrong with me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The moonlight lit the shoji panels in Kagome's room, making them glow like pale silver burning cold. She herself was uneasily asleep; after a moment's delay, she had returned to her room and stared at the ceiling from her bed until the dreams took her. Her long black hair now spilled across her back and onto the futon like rivulets of ink on snow, curled on her side, one hand by her pale face. Her brow creased momentarily and a shiver flowed through the air, the power in her unconscious every bit as potent as when she was alert.

Inu-Yasha watched her, filled with self-loathing. What had he done to her? How it must have hurt her when, after letting her know straight out how he felt for the first time, at the first mention of Kikyô's name he went haring off after her instead.

He really was a monster.

Those years without her had been the worst; to know what real love felt like instead of just attraction, and then to be deprived of it; the only thought that had kept him going was that Naraku was alive and he had to kill him for Kagome. There had been times when he thought he couldn't go on, times that were the worst for him, when the world was dark and the pain didn't seem to end. And now, with her back, it had seemed those days would be at an end.

But with the way he was feeling right now, he wasn't going to put any money on that.

Kneeling by her side, he gently brushed her cheek and whispered, "I'm sorry, Kagome."

She latched onto his hand, still asleep, and cradled it to her face like a stuffed animal. He blushed and carefully worked it free, then stood up. He loved her, and that would never change, but of what was going to happen with Kikyô he had no idea. It was her, all right, but he'd said they would talk in the morning and set her up with a room—more-or-less-coincidentally on the other side of the fort from Kagome's—and went and hid in his study, having realized that there was no way he could face Kagome right then. 

What did he owe Kikyô now? Naraku's initial death had not been enough, and the appeal of being dragged down to hell with her had faded somewhat. Naraku was responsible, and he'd kill him, but beyond that what was there? 

There was a chasm between them now, a great, gaping chasm, that could never be filled. It had been opened when they'd fallen into the trap and lost faith in their love; ever since then it had been shrinking or growing, depending on what had happened last.

Tomorrow he would see how wide the void went.

Something struck the wall on his left, and he jumped, staring at it. Whatever it was thudded into it again, and this time the wood splintered. 

The third strike broke the wall completely, and it fell, raising a huge cloud of dust. By then Kagome was sitting up, dazed but alert, and her hands were automatically reaching for her bow and arrows.

Something hurtled out of the dust and flew past her: she threw herself to the side, but not fast enough; a gash appeared along her arm.

"Kagome-sama!" The form came to a halt, straining against the invisible as Inu-Yasha snarled, readying his claws.

The dust settled, and the attacker's face became clear. Eyes full of fear and distress, Daiji struggled for a moment, then was thrown forward, the dagger in her hand glinting. 

Sesshoumaru entered, calm as if this was a picnic, and seized her by the back of the kimono. In return, whatever it was that had her jerked her around. The hand holding the knife lifted, then plunged into his heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**__**

sound effects **_Bum—bum—bum!_** **_Another one bites the dust! Told you I'd find a better cliffhanger. And hell if I'm gonna tell you what happens next—what point would there be in you reading my story, then? _**

Okay, admit it. You hate to love me, and you love to hate me. What do you know, I hate to love me and love to hate me too. We've got something in common after all!

Oh, all right, I'll give a hint about what happens next chapter: Some outstanding issues are resolved, and Naraku does something very stupid. Happy? You should be, I'm writing this on a school night and I've got all my classes tomorrow instead of the regular four out of six, and I've gottests in English, FST, and Japanese. 

Whee.


	4. Ashes to Ashes

To Rebuild the Lost Past

Chapter Four: Ashes to Ashes

**__**

Hey hey! Holy Jihad, you gotta love it in the Inu-Yasha section! It's all warm and cozy and snuggly with little Inu-Yasha obscenities sprinkled throughout like little nuggets of love! ^^ Perhaps you haven't noticed this quite yet, dear readers, but I am either incredibly weird, madder than a hatter, or very possibly both. I'll have to ponder this later.but I find the smallest things fascinating and have the most demented sense of fun imaginable. (Read: likes to kill off main characters in stories. More than once in the same story, if possible. In a story and its sequel, I killed off the male lead two and a half times. Don't ask. And finds putting a screw in a two-by-four on the underside of a set of raised platforms really quite entertaining.)

Anyway, I believe there will be one more chapter after this. I know, it's a terribly short story, but I didn't exactly plan on it being an epic and I seem to be doing a lot of five-chapter stories lately in a desperate attempt to learn how to write short stories. u_u ::siiiiigh::

Disclaimer: Um, yeah. If you really, really want to think to yourself that maybe I own this, go wild. For the rest of you posers, (j/k!) I don't own this. I make neither profit nor any money whatsoever from this (but if I did, that'd be really really cool.) Yeah. No ownership here.

SHAZAM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sesshoumaru glanced down, mildly surprised, and plucked the knife out of his chest, looking at it curiously. "Fascinating," he muttered under his breath, studying the blade with narrowed golden eyes. The wound, visible through the rip in his kimono, sealed quickly, a white scar showing briefly and then fading.

Kagome struggled to her feet and tried to find whatever was manipulating Daiji, but nothing picked up on her senses. It couldn't be right, though, because she'd never be able to move like that otherwise. 

__

Wait a second She readjusted her magical eyesight to see the makeup of the puppet spell that had made her in the first place. Silver-light threads formed a grid over Daiji's body, but overlaid on them were darker black threads. One jerked slightly, and her arm moved in an attempt to get free from Sesshoumaru's grasp on her kimono.

"Oh no"

She let white wires of power stream from her fingers and form a slowly-spinning globe around the girl. It wouldn't last too long, but it would have to do. "Stay there, Daiji. You should have control over your body now."

She nodded, eyes wide in her pale face, just as Miroku, Sango, and Shippô arrived. "Kagome?! What happened?" 

Kagome turned to the others. "When Naraku tried to use Daiji for the first time, he predicted that you'd know about her being a puppet and that you'd bring her into the fort. He can't manipulate her mind, but he did build in demon threads that he could use to control from a distance knowing she could do a lot of damage under the spell before anything could be done."

"Well, then, take the threads off," Shippô said confusedly.

"That's the problem," replied Kagome. "The hair in most puppets is what ties the spell and earth together. Naraku took one of my hairs and warped it into the manipulation spell, though, and used that to tie her together. I can't take it off without destroying her."

The white sphere shattered, fragments of power spreading everywhere and smoking where they landed, then fading. "Get out!" Kagome yelled.

"Kagome—"

"Trust me!" She turned blazing eyes on them. "I don't have time to explain! Get _out!"_

Daiji was yanked forward, eyes shut in pain as one hand hovered over the other one. The edge of something sharp appeared, blood running down her arm, and a dagger identical to the one she'd had before emerged from her palm. Tears ran down her face as she flew towards Sango.

White power lashed around all of them and dropped them outside, then slammed the shoji screen. Kagome's silhouette was etched against the paper: she fell to her knees, and then a pulse ran through the walls. A moment later, blazing light rolled over them, then stretched and shifted until it formed a shivering curtain visible like water running over the walls.

"Amazing," Miroku said, stunned.

"What the hell did she just do, priest?!" Inu-Yasha yelled, eyes thick with worry for the woman.

He coughed politely, then said, "She used her purification abilities to completely strip all demonic power from the room and then seal it in a way that no impurities can enter again. No small feat, mind you. I perhaps could do it after reserving power for a year."

"She was tired, though," Sango said nervously. "Sheshe's alright, isn't she?"

"I don't know." Everyone looked at Miroku, who shrugged. "Has there ever been a time where you _really_ thought I'm pure? I could barely manage on Mt. Hakurei, I can't sense anything in there!"

"That's it." Before anyone could stop it, Inu-Yasha put a hand on the shoji screen and strained, trying to push it aside. The white light crackled over his arms, and he gritted his teeth in pain, but the screen slid open an inch. Purple and gold warred in his eyes, black streaks running through his hair and fading again, and then he thrust himself through all the way. His ears vanished, and they had a brief glimpse of him as a human before the screen slammed shut again. There was a murmur of low voices, and then an oddly-shaped silhouette appeared. This time, the screen opened easily from the inside, and Inu-Yasha stepped out, returning to half-demon, an unconscious Kagome in his arms. [AN: My friend Akane is over here, and she just called Sesshy "Fluffy-chan"!!!! AAAAHHHAAAAAHAHHHHHAHAAAA!!!!]

"How—how is she?" Sango asked fearfully.

Inu-Yasha saw what she thought in her eyes. "She's not dead," he said shortly—before he fell to his knees, exhaustion making them give out. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kagome awoke sometime midmorning, with the all-too-cheerful glare of sunshine falling directly into her eyes. She was tired, cranky, and altogether ill-tempered when she woke up, her dreams being uneasy and filled with half-formed thoughts of the situations with Daiji, Inu-Yasha, and Kikyô. 

__

Oh, big whoop-dee-doo. Sitting up, she frowned. _We've dealt with worse before, we'll deal with this now. Too much is at stake for me to turn this into a soap opera._

"How are you feeling?"

She jumped, then glanced over at the smug Inu-Yasha. "Yet again, heart failure," she grumbled.

"Keep nearly killing yourself and I'll claim no responsibility." He was sitting like he used to when they were hunting for the shards: cross-legged, Tetsusaiga tucked under folded arms. "How long is that room of yours going to last, and what happens if you go in it?"

"I'm sorry, but it's permanent." She narrowed her eyes, trying to think of the repercussions it would have. "A youkai could enter, but only if they don't have impure intentions, and then they'll be powerless. Strengthless. It's the safest place for Daiji right now–she won't be manipulated in there, but if she's outside it's a field day for Naraku. She's got enough Miko powers to be worth something, so if we provide scrying spells so she can see what's happening–"

"She can shield the fortress in a pinch," Inu-Yasha finished. "Wellthat does narrow down a few things"

"Where is everyone?" 

"Waiting for you," he said bluntly. "Feel like walking?"

"Sure I do." She stood–then fell back down, knees unable to support her.

There was a snort on the other side of the room, and then an arm was pulling her up. She was picked up, not roughly but her face burning. "Inu-Yasha–put me down, I can walk!"

"Yeah, your demonstration of it really convinces a person." He started walking down the hall.

"I can walk! Put me down!"

"Fine by me." He set her on her feet and crossed his arms, a smirk on his face as Kagome's knees turned to jelly and she collapsed.

There was a brief moment of silence, and then she scowled up at him, still beet red. "Okay. Point taken."

"Glad you see things my way." He picked her up again, but didn't comment further. She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder, eyes half-open. Inu-Yasha glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and blushed a bit for the first time in years, yet kept on walking. 

"Kagome-chan!" Sango rushed over to her the minute they entered the study. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she lied as Inu-Yasha put her in a chair.

"Except for the part where you can't walk." He stared innocently at the map.

"Osuwari! WaitDAMMIT!" She scowled again, then looked around to see who all was in the room. There was Kikyô, Sango, Miroku, Shippô, Kohaku, a Miko–fairly strong for a normal Miko–and Kouga. "Kikyô–sannice," she struggled. "Kohaku-san, it's nice to see you, you look great!" A second shock of white hair reminded her of someone else's presence. "AndSesshoumaru-san. You're looking" What could she say? What could she say? Automatically, the first thing that came to mind just flew out of her mouth. "feminine. No! I mean manly! Very manly! That kimono goes really well with you lip gloss–I mean eyeliner! I mean–uh–eyes! So, um, how are we going to kill Naraku?"

Inu-Yasha, after ten seconds of attempting to conceal his laughter and failing miserably, turned around and cleared his throat. "Right–Naraku. The problem right now is that we don't know enough, and we can't get any spies into his stronghold. By making us concentrate on Yokohama and Maebashi, he wanted to split our forces. We'll turn that against him–send a bunch of low-level Miko and Sou to each, ones that can be spared, and a few medium-level youkai, then make the fortress seem as unguarded as possible. When he comes to attack us from the Southwest, we'll be ready. The downside is that we'll have no clue when he plans to strike. A good estimate, maybe–the two most likely times are after the decoys are more than a day away from our fort and when they look like they're wearing a little thin, but Naraku may pull something anyway. He doesn't work on logic when that's what everyone follows, so this should take two weeks. The two groups will have two weeks to get there and clean up whatever mess is going on and make it look as real as possible and, if Naraku misjudges, make it back in time. Naraku might not even attack. He may have extra force with him as a buffer in case something happens; he may not even be there." Inu-Yasha paused, then added, "He may attack the forces going to the towns."

"That's not acceptable."

Everyone turned to stare at Kagome. "What?" Inu-Yasha asked finally.

"That's not acceptable," she said quietly. "We _know_ how he thinks. His experience of us as a group is that we'll go to save anything that needs help, all of us, no matter how big or small it is. If he follows those lines, by all means we'd take all our forces to either town, and what better time to attack? As one, the fort is unbreakable, but in two he can attack each leg of the attack. If he thinks that each group is half of all we've got, then he'll decimate them and then come after us. If it's going to be convincing, you'll need at least a hundred in each group, and that puts two hundred heads on the block."

"Sacrifices have to be made to destroy Naraku," Kikyô said evenly, eyes emotionless. 

"Not two _hundred_ of them!" she retorted. "I repeat: We _know_ how this guy thinks! Why just destroy the fort when there's two hundred from our side who are going to come back and be pissed off? He _doesn't_ leave loose ends, and even if he does come to the fort first, there's no telling whether he'll see it's a trap and retreat, then go after the people we've sent out!"  
"The Shikon Jewel is here," Miroku pointed out. "Most likely he'll come to get it first."

"He already suspects I'm back, and Inu-Yasha, you've said it yourself: I scare him! If he thinks I just might be here and standing between him and the Jewel, he won't be throwing his forces at us first! Why risk wearing them down when he can take out two hundred people easily and _then_ come at us? If they're all low-level youkai and Miko, he won't really blunt his edge on them!"

"And what do you propose?" Kikyô said, tone slightly mocking. "Sending the best fighters with them and leaving the fort truly defenseless?"

"All I'm saying is that it's not worth it to risk two hundred lives when sheer numbers is something Naraku may have and we sure as hell _don't._ If there are enough people, anything can happen! Look at the French Revolution–oh, wait, seventeenth century. Never mindbut think of what would happen if _every_ youkai turned on either us or Naraku, all at once. No matter how strong either of our forces, inevitably he or we would be overwhelmed. We need every life we've got, and throwing two hundred people away is _not_ acceptable."

"It's a sacrifice we have to run the chance of taking." For the first time since she'd cut in, Inu-Yasha spoke. "We have enough illusion demons to make up for at least twenty or so, but that means we're going to have to choose which hundred and eighty we'll send out."

"Didn't you hear me?" Kagome demanded. "This is throwing out a hundred and eighty lives!"

"If that is the cost, so be it," Kikyô returned.

"No!" She unsteadily got to her feet, looking at her former companions in confusion and slight dislike. "What's gotten into you people? Don't you remember why we were hunting down Naraku in the first place–so he would _stop killing people._ Miroku-san, you lost your father to Naraku! Sango-chan, would you be willing to lose your entire village again? You too, Kohaku-san! And Inu-Yasha–I thought you would be the _last_ one to want to throw away lives." She gave him glare for glare. "After all you've lost to him, you want to go through with this? Is _that_ the sacrifice' you want? Everyone who you're sending out there is _not_ a number, they're a person and those that care about them are going to go through the very same loss!"

"Then I suggest you find someone to protect them, _Miko._" Kikyô's stony expression never flickered.

"Maybe I will," Kagome nearly spat, eyes on fire.

__

"Enough!" Inu-Yasha slammed a fist on the table. "This is not your choice, Kagome, and it is not your place to question our attack! It goes ahead as scheduled whether you like it or not! Naraku plays dirty, in case you didn't figure that out, and if we want to beat him we've got to play dirtier!"

She met his gaze levelly, her rage beneath the calm surface terrible but only showing in her eyes. "Do we, Inu-Yasha?"

Then she turned on her heel and left, head held high. It was only when she'd reached her new room that she allowed herself to slowly release her anger. As long as she kept her fury under control, she was safe, but if she'd let it out in one burst the results could be catastrophic. And if she'd stayed in that room any longer, she would have lost control, doubtless: how could they just regard those lives as numbers?

__

"I suggest you find someone to protect them, **Miko.**"

She knelt down and closed her eyes, a plan starting to form in her mind. The sense of the Shikon Jewel was mingled with the other kehai in the fortress, but it would take finer tuning to pinpoint its location. She shifted the sense to the jewel's own frequency' as it were and pictured the castle. The image appeared between her upturned palms as a black outline of the fort; she then put the frequency into the image. A purple glaze washed over everything, then vanished, a tiny light settling in the main tower. She zoomed in on it and narrowed her eyes. It wasn't in Inu-Yasha's study, but it was close. She'd have to be careful about this oneHow were her powers? Checking, she found they were about halfway restored. 

Inu-Yasha himself had said it: Naraku was afraid of her, perhaps more than of Inu-Yasha and the entire fort. But the only thing that could make him face her was the Shikon Jewel. She couldn't travel with the forces–Naraku would be drawn to the Shikon Jewel's power–but she could watch over them, find an abandoned home or the like that was equal distance from all three locations and keep an eye on everything. If anything, it would mean she'd battle Naraku herself, and if worse came to worse she would make a wish on the jewel to keep it out of his grasp. 

Drawing on her lowered powers, she wrapped a tendril around the knot of energy and pulled slightly. It resisted, trying to follow the laws of physics, then dropped into her open palm. All it really was was the concept of negative distance, but she wasn't going to think about that right then. Her staff lay against the wall. She picked it up and fingered the intricate carvings: Sango's Kagome had seen her as a hero, someone to admire, someone to strive to be like. She hadn't felt like a hero then and she didn't now, but right then she'd have to pretend that she was.

This was going to take precise timing and extreme caution. She'd have to find a way to slip out while the decoy troops were leaving; they'd make a big fuss as they did, but there would have to be a way for her to ensure no one would suspect she was gone until she was well on her way and it was too late to recall anyone without ruining the plan. She was the' Kagome, she'd think of something.

Inuyasha would suspect something if she faked a sudden change of heart and claimed she was conducting spells that would help his plan somehow; it would be better to address a more neutral but yet pressing subject. There was her excuse: she'd find out why the Shikon Jewel hadn't vanished. It wouldn't take that much energy, but she could make it seem as if it did and she could keep any unwanted visitors away with that. A scrap of parchment hung on the door, saying,**_. _**

"I am working with the Shikon Jewel—do not disturb or you will be blown up. Seriously." as well as a thick shield that no one who cared would be able to sense through, and she was set.****

Kagome examined the jewel in her hands, thoughtful. The powers it held were like a hot spring bubbling up from the earth—anyone could take strength from it, but it would regenerate and maintain at a steady level thanks to a process deeper inside the jewel. It was like a constant cycle, a pulse, and with each either came a fresh wave of strength or a continuance of the energy level. That was what made it work, it tick; ever since she'd held the whole of the stone, it had had that pulse. Not the shards themselves, but the whole enchilada.

But for whatever reason, it was completely still. That throbbing had come to a standstill, the dizzying feel of life and death trapped within gone, the ache of power still there but not that reborn sensation.

She delved deeper within the jewel, trying to find what had caused this, into the cycle itself. And there she found it: the pulse was created from the clash of powers within, light against darkness, and the light was almost overtaking the darkness. And then it'd stopped, like there was a knot in the cycle. It was easy enough to fix, but she couldn't think of what had happened to make it do this. She'd wished for Inuyasha to have what he needed to be happy—why hadn't he got it and the jewel left? Was the jewel what he needed to be happy, and if so, why hadn't he used it?

As she carefully worked away at loosening the knot of power, that thought turned over and over in her mind

**__**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The late afternoon showed a hint of sunlight. No one was out to see the two hundred varied youkai and Miko leave; it was supposed to seem as if they were all leaving. Instead, all other eyes watched them leave through shaded windows and screens; all but one pair.

That pair burned like blue steel under the shadow of a hood, slipping out, pack on her back, a curious necklace hanging underneath her _haori._ She had to do this right, while everyone else was watching the troops leave. The parchment was still posted on her door, a spell left in place to simulate magical activity hopefully identical to what they'd expect of someone working with the Shikon Jewel, now with her. Its pulse was back, the stream of power hidden by a small shield of her own. 

It was the rocky expanse that stretched to the tree line that most worried her, but soon she was under the pine cover and rushing through the forest. Her senses told her where the troops were; she'd fall in with them when they were out of sight, then leave once they reached the crossroads. No one would notice an extra Miko, though she'd have to be particularly careful: she could hide her presence, but she couldn't change her appearance, and if anyone recognized her it would take a lot of fast talking and assurances that she was supposed to be here and that Inuyasha had sent her. 

Was she really going to pull this off?

A small mew caught her attention and she glanced down, startled. Kirara was looking up at her with wide scarlet eyes, as if questioning why she was leaving. "I can't let them go out there unprotected," she whispered. "You should go back to the castle, it's not safe out here. Don't let them know I've left."

She crunched forward, resolved not to turn back and indulge in the safety of the castle. Another sharp mew echoed, and then claws were hooked into her cloak, pulling their owner up onto her shoulder. Kirara settled herself a bit more securely and looked ahead expectantly. "You're coming with me, then?" It was more of a statement than a question.

The two trudged ahead and trailed quietly after the procession, as unseen as the evening shadows. None would know they were gone until too late.

**__**

__

The night found her warming her hands by a fire and curled up against Kirara, inconspicuous in the dim autumn-tinted flames. A few Miko wandered around, but in the darkness they were naught but shapeless forms, as indistinguishable from one another as fireflies hovering in a****lantern. None had recognized her and she'd managed to meld in well enough; another day with them and then she'd depart to find a secure place.****

"Do you think Yokohama's in serious trouble?" A wisp of a conversation floated over and she listened closely, feigning sleep.

"I don't know." The speaker sounded like a woman in her late thirties. "With all those demons, who can tell? Maybe it's just overestimation."

"But what if it is? I wonder how tough they'll be to crack down on."

"Probably not that tough, if we're all Inuyasha-sama is sending. I wonder, though—why'd he send so many if he just wants to take care of some low-levelers? And Maebashi, that's just silliness—so there's not many demons! Big deal!"**_  
_**They don't know, she realized with a sinking heart. They don't know that they're on a suicide mission.

How can they do this? I thought I knew them—I thought I knew Inuyasha! I thought he'd never do something like this—Naraku, yes, Sesshoumaru maybe, but not Inuyasha!

I never thought he'd change this much

Kirara rumbled questioningly and Kagome buried her face in the cat-demon's soft fur. "Everything's so different," she whispered. "It's like I'm the only one who sees how wrong this is."

"How wrong what is?"

She nearly flew out of her skin and looked up, only to find a priest eerily similar to her grandfather looking down on her. "Erthat we have to goto Maebashi," she struggled. "Because there's no demons there. There's nothing to try and solve."

"Do you mind if I sit down?" he asked quietly.

"No, not at all," she said hurriedly. 

"Thank you." He settled himself with the stiff movements of old age. "My name is Yatarou, by the way. Now, what is it that plagues your mind, Miko-san?"

"Idon't think this is a very smart thing to do." 

"Why not?"

"Because—because—" What could she tell him? "Because we're using too many people. There are too many lives at stake than what seems necessary."

"Ah, but Inuyasha-sama is one to trust in," said the old man. "I believe he knows all the risks that are taken with every move, and he weighs them against the desired result. He knows that we are very vulnerable out here, but if it helps the people who need it, it has to be done. There must be a reason he wants us out here, but I'll have to live with not knowing. You wouldn't know anymore than I do, Kagome-sama."

She blinked at him. How had he known her name? And he was pushing to find Inuyasha's reason to have them out there. "My name isn't Kagome," she said slowly. 

"It isn't?" 

"No. It's Kimiko." She rested her head on Kirara's side, watching him carefully out of the corner of her eye. "A lot of people say I look like Kagome-sama, though."

"Really? And are you as strong as her?"

"No. She didn't go with us." An idea formed in her head. "In fact, she decided to journey to somewhere really far from here to try and find where Naraku is. She left the Shikon no Tama in the fort."

"You don't say. Do you know where she went?"

"No, just that it was far away. She and Inuyasha-sama were talking when I was sent to bring them dinner."

"How are they getting along?" His eyes glowed in the firelight.

"Very well," she lied, voice sleepy.****Oh yes, I practically called him a heartless coward to his face. But I meant it in a good way.

"I see you're tired." He got to his feet with too much ease for an old man. "Good night, Kimiko-san."

"Good night, Yatarou-sama." She let her eyes drift shut and searched for the vague youki that would reside in him if she was right. There it was, just as she'd suspected, and there was the demon. He'd lead back to Naraku, but she'd filled him with enough false information that whether he lived or died was no consequence. Actually, if she killed him in a complicated way, she'd give herself away, so she seized her bow and fired a shot into his back. Naraku had undoubtedly heard all the conversation, and the last thing she was going to give him was another living servant. The old man's skin fell away, revealing a lizard, and then that too dissolved with hardly a flare of power. 

Closing her eyes once more, she tried to fall asleep. There was no one she could talk to anymore. 

__

Morning dawned, cold and clear, but she didn't see it until a few hours after she awoke, and then it wasn't in the best of circumstances. 

All was dark when her eyes flew open and she sat up. Something was coming, but she wasn't sure what. Kirara was stirring likewise, fur fluffing out and her tail bushing. It was big, it was bad, and it wanted them as a late-night/early-morning snack. 

She scrambled for her staff as it neared with frightening speed. All were asleep and she needed a way to wake them up and disclose the oncoming attack at the same time The _hakama_ tangled around her feet and nearly tripped her as she unsteadily stood, staff in hand, and focused her power inside it. A ball of light grew at its tip, swelling like the full moon, and when it was large enough she released it. It flew into the sky like an overly large firefly fleeing from the unseen.

Murmurs and cries of surprise echoed up and down the camp as the burning ball of white streaked higher and higher, trailing little bits of flame as it did. Then it highlighted something drawing closer; fear rolled off the people in waves. 

"Kirara!" She didn't have time for her arrows, which meant she'd have to use the staff as a focus _and_ use long-distance spellsthis was not good. The scarlet of her _hakama_ was stark against the off-white fur and the dark predawn sky; they took to the air, Kagome with staff in a white-knuckled hand and glowing faint white. The fear beneath was energy, energy they were burning and she could use: pointing the staff down, she gestured, and all the energy getting burned in fear was pulled into it. The tip shone once more like a star, and a clear crystal orb slowly formed there, a wellspring of power at her call. 

Naraku was at the head of a cloud of demons stretching hundreds of feet to either side, illuminated sharply by the cold white light of the moon and her orb. But was he? Another was at his side, and another and another

It couldn't be.

__

This was why he'd been dormant for a year. _This_ was why he'd wanted a distraction.

An army of puppets was arrayed on either side, behind them more youkai, all ringed in the deadly miasma of a sick pale white, and together there were more youkai than she'd ever seen in one place. This was a big one, and by making them split their forces, he'd known they weren't going to stand a chance.

Of course, he hadn't counted her in on the fun either.

She pointed her staff at the one at the head—it was, from the miasma leaking inevitably from him, the true Naraku—and narrowed her eyes. "Hello, Naraku. Long time no see."

He shifted, unease flicking delicately across his features for a brief moment. "Bitch," he finally said.

"Oh, I'm _hurt,"_ she snapped. "Whatever shall I do?" She'd _known_ he'd come after them first, she'd just _known_ it! 

A tentacle shot out and she dissolved it with ease, but another caught her by the waist and tore her from Kirara, then hurled her to the ground. She lessened the impact with her powers, but it still shook her to the teeth. Pushing hair out of her eyes, she glanced up only to find them in retreat. "Intimidated, is he?" she muttered.

"Not in the slightest, little Miko," came a casual voice. A puppet stood over her. "But he'd rather not waste time with you when there's a fort to destroy." 

__

No.

Her pulse thudded like the oncoming steps of the Grim Reaper in her ears. The fort? He'd come for them—had she frightened him off? And nowWithout her there to shield them from the worst, they _were_ unprotected A cry of rage ripped from her throat as she swung the staff into the puppet and mud rained down around her with a nauseating pop. Kirara landed next to her and she hauled herself up.

"Kagome—sama?" Everyone was staring at her with wide eyes. "You'reKagome-sama?"

"Yes," she forced out, still breathing hard. "I was afraid Naraku would attackbut he's goingto the fortNow if you'll excuse me" She heaved herself onto Kirara's back once more. One swift leap, and they were in flight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What do you mean, Kagome is gone?" Inuyasha's voice was dangerously flat and toneless.

"She—she's not in her room," the quivering servant squeaked. "And no one has seen her since—since yesterday"

Inuyasha spat out a word that was not heard in polite company and that would scar a young child for life and slammed a fist into the shoji screen as the squirrel youkai scampered out.

"You certainly go through those fast," Miroku observed sagely.

"Shut the hell up for once, priest!" Inuyasha was absolutely livid. "Do you think this is _funny?!_ The whole plan rested on the fact that she would be here so Naraku wouldn't beat the shit out of us, and now that's all down the god-damn pisshole!"

"Perhaps it wasn't the wisest plan." 

"Like _hell!_"

"Kagome knows more about many things than we do," the cursed priest pointed out. "Perhaps she saw something wrong with it that we cannot." When the hanyou didn't reply, he continued. "And after a taunt like that from Kikyô-sama, I'm not that surprised."

"What part of shut the hell up' did not get through to you?"

"I'm immune to your insults. And the plan was faulty. You know Kagome well enough, even I could tell she wasn't going to just play along."

"She was supposed to."

"Inuyasha, perhaps there is something I should point out to you." Miroku prodded the ruins of the third shoji screen that week with his toe. "All of us, we're used to the same old routine, the same old tune, and we've been mumbling it for thirteen years. Kagome, she sees things different. She's singing her own song and she always will, and there's not much we can do to change that."

Inuyasha paused to try to work out what Miroku had just said, eyes blank. "We don't sing. And Kagome doesn't sing. In front of us, at least."

"It was a metaphor," sighed the priest. "She's not going to see things the way we do. She never will. End of story."

"Who's telling a story? And I see things fine. Are you saying she's blind or something?"

"Never mind, Inuyasha." He rolled his eyes heavenward. "Doubtless she went to protect the troops sent out, though." He regarded the darkness beyond the ruined screen with a pensive eye. Dawn was due in an hour or so. "So we are not helpless, but far less strong than we need to be if Naraku attacks us."

"He _will_ attack the fort first," Inuyasha muttered sullenly. 

"Inuyasha-sama, an urgent message just came from the relief forces," a kitsune's voice announced. Her body arrived with a pop after a second. "They were just attacked by Naraku!"  
Inuyasha rested his forehead in his hands, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like "I hate my life" and straightened, scowling at the sniggering Miroku. "Shut up, you. What happened?"

"Naraku tried an assault about fifteen minutes ago, but someone woke up and fired a light ball to alert everyone else. She was traveling with Kirara and was far stronger than anyone else, and Naraku recognized her, so we believe it was Kagome-sama. She was thrown from Kirara and Naraku left, and he's headed for the fort. They say Kagome-sama left after that and was also headed here."

"So you were wrong and right, both of you," Miroku said thoughtfully. "AirborneI'd give him thirty minutes to be here. It's fortunate Kagome-san was there or they could have been slaughtered."

Inuyasha sent him a warning look and told the kitsune, "Inform everyone to assume positions and be prepared to attack." This was it. _God damn it, Kagome, why'd you have to go and desert us? This ain't gonna be a picnic_ "Miroku, get Sango and Shippô and Kouga up. I want them here yesterday."

"Yes, master," he drawled. "As his worshipfulness desires." His voice carried no hint of anxiety, but his walk did. If they succeeded this time, he and his children would be free of their curse forever. He'd live out his life and be the first in his line since his grandfather to see a white hair on his head. He'd see his grandchildren. Anything was possible if Naraku was dead.

He looked out of the nearby window but found nothing in the unyielding horizon. "Hurry, Kagome-san," whispered the man under his breath before striding on.

The fort was dead silent when the first omen of Naraku appeared: the patch of darkness standing out against a lightening sky. Eyes widened in fear when details started to rise to the surface—his numbers were large, much too large. Were they prepared for so many? 

"The eagle youkai say that about a hundred of them are illusions," Miroku said softly. He, Inuyasha, Kikyô, Kouga, Sango, and the other leaders were on the main tower. "But the rest are real. They estimate three hundred ogres, seven hundred and fifty varied youkai, a hundred illusionists, two hundred or so Dark Miko, and six hundred puppets."

"Puppets?" Inuyasha asked, startled. 

"Puppets," his companion confirmed. "We won't be able to tell the real Naraku from them until we're in close range, but I can sense his aura."

The hanyou nodded briefly and returned his gaze to the growing blot of black.

Ogres heralded the attack, flying ahead and scattering kegs of gunpowder. Flanking them were flame vultures and grub demons—mindless but with an eternally empty stomach, all they would do was find and devour.

The gong rang out and lances of white speared the first row, eliciting shrieks and strangled cries. The bone boomerang flashed through the air with deadly accuracy, ripping through one of the greater ogre's belly. Desperate howls rose from youkai sucked into oblivion; eagle youkai took on the flame vultures and more were locked in battle all around.

Naraku landed on the barren earth before them—but was it Naraku? Puppet after puppet followed, each grinning coolly, none distinguishable from the other. Any could be the real one, for all Inuyasha could tell.

Kikyô was aiming at one, hate etched in her eyes. "Is that the real one?" he asked tersely, wishing Kagome was there. 

"Yes." She fired the arrow and it streaked toward Naraku, blazing white. He dodged, looking up with empty eyes, and at an unknown signal dozens of the puppets leapt at their tower.

Inuyasha leapt out, roaring, _"Kaze no Kizu!"_ Mud and fragments of wood fell, forcing those below to shield their faces, but more and more took their places. Scores upon scores appeared, having been shielded beneath illusions—there were too many—

__

"Sheer numbers is something Naraku may have and we sure as hell **don't**.Think of what would happen if **every** youkai turned on either us or Naraku, all at once. No matter how strong either of our forces, inevitably he or we would be overwhelmed."

She was rightshe'd been rightHe couldn't fight like he'd used to, like he needed to, not without her around.

__

"Inuyasha!"

Two of the puppets had Kikyô and were dragging her to the real Naraku. He grasped her by the throat and lifted her into the air, face fiercely triumphant. "Inuyasha, _this_ is the price of war with me! Have you not learned that in every battle, sacrifices must be made?" His fingers tightened, locked around her throat, as the demon casually dropped words eerily similar to Inuyasha's own. "This, Inuyasha—_this_ is _your_ sacrifice!"

There was a flash of dark power and Kikyô stiffened, mouth opening and closing but no sound coming. Lines ran along the skin visible, hairline fractures at first and then cracks that stood out like old scars. Her feet trembled, then the sandals dropped and a white ash hung where they'd been. Slowly her legs turned to dust as she gasped out, "I-Inu—yasha—" A hand reached out to him; then it too dissolved into a puff of powder on the wind and was gone, like ground china. Her face was the last, slowly disintegrating until her accusing, horror-filled eyes were left. Then they vanished with a small screech-like sound and a small clink echoed in the resounding silence, chips of broken bone falling to the earth.

Naraku laughed, starting softly and rising to a maniacal crescendo, hand still clenched and raised as though in victory. Inuyasha couldn't make himself move, make himself think, make himself do anything. Kikyô wasgone? Dead? It couldn't be right

The lone figure in red remained frozen on the wasteland while the youkai's laughter began to fade, and silence descended as all watched their leaders to see what would happen next.

And thus many heard the sharp intake of breath from a figure beside a giant cat at the edge of the battlefield. Kagome's eyes were wide and stunned, and she was torn between going to Inuyasha or beating Naraku to a bloody pulp, then making jerky out of his carcass and donating it to the needy.

That dilemma was suddenly and indirectly solved for her. Whatever Naraku was still clasping in his fist came to life; it was crazy and clearly trying to escape. He fought to hold onto it and for a moment there was a brief struggle while sweat broke out on his face.

Then it tore off his hand and shook it free: it was a tiny, darkly glowing ball. Kagome started backing away, uneasy and heart beating in dread as it neared her—then it slammed into her chest and she screamed, stumbling back. Blackness seized her mind and bound it in chains, muffled her voice, took her.

It was Kikyô's mindless hatred. And it was in control of the two most powerful forces on earth.

[AN: I don't think you're going to like me very much]

She fell on her knees, breathing hard while the two powers within the human shell fought. The hatred drew on the Shikon Jewel and drove her further back, and then shoved away all points of control she had had. 

"Kagome?" Inuyasha whispered, apprehensive.

She unsteadily got to her feet again, bone-chillingly similar to when Kikyô had regained all of their soul and had stood for the first time in the new body. Her eyes opened and locked with his.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

__

"Shut up, monster!" White power picked him up and tossed him into the fort wall—fifty feet away. 

"Oh yes, destroy," Naraku gloated. "Break everything you wish to, my dear girl."

The blue-gray rings of her eyes were fading out, taking the pupil with them, so that all that was left was burning white. _"Oh, sure,"_ she hissed. _"Let's start with you."_ Another ball of white wrapped around him and ground him into the earth. _"How do you like it, you bastard? How do you like dying? We'll go through this several times, so don't bother trying to remember."_ With a gesture, she lifted him high into the air, though leaving his sword on the ground. One hand stretched up, holding the invisible strings keeping him thirty feet above them. The other made a motion as if drawing the sword nearer, then jerked up, and it shot into the air, then went straight through Naraku. Miasma fell in a stream, but it came down on her and rolled away, fading once it touched an invisible aura around the woman. The hand controlling the sword moved up and down several times, sending the blade through him each time. Then she brought it down and left it standing on its hilt, pointing straight at the sky; her other hand dropped. 

Naraku fell onto his own katana, now soaked in blood. His eyes were furious but also had the desperate look of a wild animal. "Eat—shit—and _die,_ you pathetic bitch." A knot of black power formed above her head and fired at her.

She caught it neatly, and white shot through it. It turned to a blazing star between her hands, then grew until it was three feet in diameter. Raising it over head, she gave him a sickly sweet smile. _"You first."_

White burst in an explosion with Naraku at its heart, and for a moment, everything was the issuing roar of the blast and near-blinding light. When it cleared, she was standing next to a Naraku that looked far worse for the wear. _"Funny how you told me to die," _she said in the cold voice that had come with Kikyô's hatred. _"Especially since I seem to have your ass on a silver platter here. And then there was that whole pathetic bitch' thing."_ Her foot came down on his back. _"That really hurt my feelings, you know."_

She was knocked off her feet by a huge explosion behind her. By now, her body was starting to glow white too, which didn't seem to be a very good sign; she lay on the ground for a moment, breathing hard again. Someone had finally realized that Naraku wasn't the only one who could attack her and done it—they would die. She hated them all. They would all die. She would kill them all. 

Sickly white power started rising off of her as her veins themselves turned brilliant, searing white and the light became harsh and cold. Someone was at her back: Sango, and Miroku, and Shippô. They were the girl's friends.

"Kagome-chan? Please, stop this," Sango begged. "You're killing yourself."

"I'm already dead," laughed the voice that had Kagome. "You saw it. I don't care about Kagome—I hate her. _I hate her. _And I hate you! _I hate you all!_ **_I hate you all!_** **_I HATE YOU ALL!_**"

The ground shook and rocks started breaking and rising slightly in the air for a few moments while the woman who had been Kagome trembled in rage. Then she vanished, appearing in the air over the fort. _"I hate you all, I hate you all, I hate you all,"_ she chanted furiously. _"Damn you all to hell, you're alive and I hate you. I never got a chance—I hate you! I deserve a chance to live! If I don't get a chance—"_ Her arm raised up again, shedding a clear and deadly light. _"then **you** don't get a chance either!"_ It swept down in an arc. The North Tower teetered dangerously as screams echoed across the still silent field, and immediately youkai flew over to keep it in place. The evacuation gong sounded and figures poured out, but the white demon paid it no heed, unseeing eyes clenched shut.

"Kagome, _stop!"_ Shippô pleaded. "You're killing them! Have mercy—have compassion!"

__

"Did the world show me compassion?" demanded the woman. Her hair was floating around her in a cloud, slowly waving like smoke from a wet fire. _"I spent my life trying to help those in need, and they kill me! I sacrifice my humanity to save others and this is how they repay me! I HATE YOU ALL!"_

The faint white aura blasted into flames, and her eyes were completely open and blank now, light shooting out like lightning in glass. Her hands lifted, palm-out, toward the main tower as the last occupant scurried from it, and the wood began creaking dangerously. It swayed, leaning to one side and then another, columns and support beams squalling, and then with a jerk she brought her hands straight up.

The tower flew into the air and hung there like an enormous whale suspended in the ocean. _"I am the god of hate,"_ screamed the woman. _"I hate now and will always hate you all!"_ A shadow passed over onlookers as the tower soared over the fort and fell in the battlefield, structures groaning, a huge cloud of dust billowing up and swallowing anyone nearby. A gap was left where the tower had once been like a toothless gum; with a huge rumble, the broken remains collapsed in a heap of wood and paper and metal. Miroku had the feeling they were going to need to replace a lot more than a shoji screen on this one.

And already the hate-creature that had Kagome was starting another attack. White light was becoming visible through her skin and her hands were bleeding, as if her body couldn't take much more, but the horrors continued. With another sweep of her hand, the fort wall came crashing down. Her arms were lifting, glowing bright for another attack—

And something seized them. Inuyasha's hands were smoking at the touch, but he held on, wincing but determined. _"Stop_ this, whatever you are! Let Kagome go!"

__

"Never." It tried to pull free.

__

"Let her go," he commanded. 

"I—Inu—" The voice was brief but fading; her dark eyes had flashed back for a split second. 

"Come on, Kagome, fight it!" He still held on, though his hands were badly burnt by now.

__

"Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP!" She shook her head furiously and writhed, twisting to free herself, then rushed forward and hit him in the stomach with another ball of power. 

He was knocked back but not by far, and the hate-demon was tiring. With a burst of speed her caught her again and before she could get him with another attack, he crushed her against him, gritting his teeth against the pain. "I know you're in there, Kagome," he said, voice forced. 

__

"Damn—you—" She was struggling, blue and white warring in her eyes. Yet it had been drawing on Kagome's power, making her less strong, and slowly the blue started fading again.

__

No—Kagome—

In a desperate last resort, her pulled her closer and pressed his mouth against her. The hate-demon's eyes flew wide open, bewildered, and agony raced through his bones at each point of contact, but if it worked it was a sacrifice he was going to make. 

Blue shot through the white and light pierced her entire body as he released her. Something small and black fell limply down, landing on the hard ground with a soft squishing noise, and Kagome collapsed against Inuyasha, exhausted. He lowered them both well out of the range of the still unsteady North Tower, and slowly set her down, then fell to his knees himself. Blood started showing through his _haori_ and rivulets of blood rolled down his hands, face, and arms. His chest was throbbing and he suspected it was in even worse shape than when Sesshoumaru had decided to experiment on various ways to run through his brother using his hand. Still, Kagome was back—and he had a better grasp of what kind of power she really commanded. He only hoped she would be

She sat up just as he fell back, unconscious, but a pair of arms caught him. She gasped, seeing who had him, and tried a spell, but she was so drained it was all she could do to stay conscious.

Naraku picked up the limp Inuyasha, smiling widely. "Thank you for that lovely display, my dear. Funny how those puppets make quite an excellent source for renewing power, hmm? Perhaps you should try it sometime. Now, I'll take our dear friend here and leave—I'm afraid it's getting late, and I don't want to overstay my welcome." Miasma plumed up again, but in the absence of her powers, she was forced to throw herself out of the way. Spell after spell headed after Naraku, but they all fell short or hit one of the puppets or youkai instead. The train of Naraku's forces vanished after a moment, and Kagome sat there, unbelieving. "Inu" She prayed that it was a trick, that he'd poke his head out from under the dirt and give her a grumpy look, that he'd be safe and uninjured and not in Naraku's possession, but no response came. It was true. He was gone.

__

"Noooo! Inuyashaaa!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**__**

Gawd, I'm tired. This is actually the night of November 21, the day that I found out I didn't get into the play, and while I'm struggling not to be repulsively bitter over the fact that my best friend got in with a tiny fraction of the work I put in, I found it also makes remarkably good fodder for writing depressing parts. I suppose I'll have to go over this and read it all tomorrow, when I'm really awake, but I must say nothing cheers you up like going to a bowling alley and getting an obscene amount of gutterballs while discussing the Phantom of the Opera with your friends. (Great Gart, the opera doesn't even come close to the book!) Anyway, scrap the whole five-chapter-thing, I got another one of my suspicious notions a few days ago and now it's going to be around ten chapters long. Anyway, it's a school night and 11:49 and while I'm in a somewhat better mood, "sunshine and daisies" is not the term I'd use to describe my outlook on life right now. Give me a week or so, I'll be back to my normal, disgustingly cheerful/perverted self.

Credits: 

"Did the world show me compassion?" is from Phantom of the Opera

__

"heartless coward to his face. But I meant it in a good way." From the tenth chapter of Cassandra Claire's Harry Potter story, Draco Veritas._ I highly recommend her works--in my humble opinion, they're better written and funnier than mine, if a tad adult-ish at times. _

Well, I can't think of anything more to acredit, so I think it's time I get some restSoon enough it's gonna be back to work parties for me, anyway


	5. Straining

To Rebuild the Lost Past

Chapter Five: Straining

**__**

Yay! Thank you for all your sympathy everybody, I'm feeling much better now. Nothing like a room full of dead cats to cheer you up, that's what I always say (my friends and I couldn't eat lunch in our normal room so we ate in a science room but they had about fifteen dead cats in there for dissection and it smelled nasty. I got to make squeaky noises and flounce around because of it, so that cheered me up.) And I got my new choir sweatshirt, and I'm very happy about it. It's very warm and cozy and I'm wearing it right now ^^

Anyway, on with the fic. Perhaps many of you are wondering where the hell it'll go from here; trust me, you're in for a long and bumpy ride. 

Onward, Upward, and AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

__

The day passed as quickly as all the other days I had spent in his company. In the afternoon he permitted me to explore his laboratory, which was a truly wondrous place, answering my questions with a simplicity that neither patronized nor bored, encouraging me to experiment with his many devices just as I wished.

"Are you really sure you want me to meddle, Erik? I might break something that you can't mend."

"Yes," he agreed gravely, "yesI think that is a thing you might well do eventually. Still, no matter. It's a risk that must be taken."

I knew, as I walked from one bench to the other, touching the vast complexity of instruments that lay between us, that he was not talking about the laboratory.

–from **Phantom,** an adaptation of **Phantom of the Opera,** by Susan Kay

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was dreaming; and that was all she knew.

In this dream, she sat atop a mound of clay on a magnificent throne, looking out on glassy seas that stretched as far as the eye could see beyond her mound. No one was there, just her, her throne, and her hill of clay. Just as she reached down to feel the clay with her own hands, wondering if perhaps she could shape something from it, it turned to ash at her touch. The whiteness spread out, and then the entire hill was sliding into the sea; she knew that she could not swim the whole way to shore. The throne was pulled from beneath her and she was forced to her feet, struggling to stay standing as the ash cascaded infinitely down. 

Then she ran out onto the sea, only to find it was not the sea but a giant mirror. Her bare feet stuck slightly to its smooth glass surface and she peered at the image that was beneath her: a haunted, wide-eyed woman. No, not a woman, a girl of sixteen; her hair was much shorter then, hardly two inches past her shoulders. The old green-and-white uniform was tatty and torn, her hair unruly, her eyes filled with sorrow and resentment. As she watched, her sixteen-year-old reflection turned away and walked towards a tree, a snake winding up her arm and towards her neck. She paused a moment, then plucked an apple and bit into it with vicious abandon. The juice was red, like blood, and it ran down her chin before she wiped it off and turned. The shadow she cast rose and took shape on its own; the snake became a lock of hair twining around the sixteen-year-old Kagome's throat. Naraku took form and drew her towards a gaping hole in the ground, and she didn't resist. 

Something tightened around the real Kagome's throat, and she shot to her feet, just then realizing she'd been on her knees. Ropes of miasma, branding pain into her skin, snaked around her wrists and ankles and she was forced to the hard surface of the mirror, arms outstretched on either side but legs tightly together. Salt rain poured down, stinging in her wounds, and cries rose from those drops of rain. It wasn't rain, as faces picked out in the clouds above, it was tears, the tears of angels

The mirror broke and she was pulled through, falling into darkness. A light appeared and the minute she reached it, her plummet halted. Then her world tilted so that instead of resting on the wall of light, she was standing before it at the end of a dark tunnel. There was a tiny hole in it, and hands reached out of the wall and pulled her towards it. Hair raced out of the darkness and seized her again, and she was being torn. Grayness surged out and seized her, locking claws into her, trying to cut off the light and the dark, and the pressure was unbelievable–

She sat up with a gasp; it was at least half a minute before she could catch her breath again. Her hands were shaking violently, and no wonder: what a nightmare! What could it mean? She'd have to tell Inuyashabut where was he?

The world that met her eyes was not one directly familiar to her. Was she still encamped with the troops headed for Yokohama and Maebashi? No, that couldn't be rightThat was the night before

The horrific events of the night before returned to her memory with all the force of a slap across the face, and she buried her head in her hands. _How could I have done that?_ she demanded of herself. _How? **How?!**_

The reasonable part of her insisted that she'd been possessed by Kikyô's hatred and was not to blame, but with the wreckage of the castle around her, in the small, child-like part of her heart she needed someone to pin it on and could only think of herself. All the dead were on her hands _her hands!_ She could have taken Naraku apart and instead she'd taken apart the fort! 

__

I hate this! I hate–

No! I can't use that word, I can't!

Hate; it was a terrible thing, yet it resided within every human being that lived; there was nothing that could change that and there would never be, and acceptance of that fact brought control; with control came clarity. 

What was she going to do?

"Kagome-chan!" Sango was at her side suddenly, looking anxious and slightly apprehensive. "Are you"

"I'm fine." She couldn't meet her eyes, guilt weighing on her shoulders. "I'msorry." There was so much more she wanted to say, but words could not express what she felt.

It wasn't fair. _It wasn't fair!_ She had _never_ asked for thisIf only she'd refused Souta that morning, if only she'd gone on to school, the grand probability was that she'd be happily married to some stupid, pleasant man and have stupid, pleasant children and leading a stupid, pleasant life She'd never asked for a life like this 

"What are you going to do now?" Sango asked after a moment.

"Me?" Her eyes were stark against the shadowed skin beneath them.

"You. Inuyasha's gone and you're the only one they'll listen to."

Kagome sat perfectly still for a long moment, her mind empty for a moment and then racing swiftly. She'd left the fort to protect the people. She'd come back for the good of the people. She'd fought Naraku for the good of the people and now their leader was gone and she was still there. 

Naraku had killed Kikyô twice. He'd destroyed villages and towns and family in his search for the Shikon shards; he'd repeatedly tried to kill her friends. He was the reason they were in this whole war; he was the cause of her possession by Kikyô's hatred. He had stolen Inuyasha from her. He had destroyed her life.

"I'll need my staff, my bow, and my arrows," said the priestess.

"Kagome-chan?" Sango peered into her eyes, a furrow in her brow.

Cool, cloudy blue-silver met crimson, a storm brewing behind those darkened eyes. Sango didn't want to be there for the lightning. Thoughts were clearly whirring away in that mind; unknown to the demon hunter, she was using her powers to survey the damages. Only a few had been killed from the tower's destruction and the fall of the fort's wall; there were fifteen dead from the attack and many more injured. The forces sent to Yokohama had arrived an hour ago and were at hard work; she'd been asleep for approximately ten hours. "Get the uninjured to start putting the wall back up. The strongest Miko that are awake and up for it can start working together to try and put the main tower back. They just have to work together. Move everyone inside and post the strongest of the Yokohama forces as guards; the Miko with them can help the healers."

"Where will you be?" That was Miroku; he sounded as if he already knew the answer. A page dropped the bow, staff and arrows at Kagome's feet and dashed off.

She turned those eyes of ice to him, and they locked for a second. He broke the stare and closed his eyes. "May–may the gods be with you, Kagome-san."

"Thank you." She tottered to her feet and tested her magic. It had rebounded in strength, presumably from the presence of the Shikon Jewel, and she was as fresh as if she'd slept a week. "Kirara?"

The cat demon transformed with a rumble and she climbed on. "I'll–be back soon," she said. "Ja ne."

"Ja ne, Kagome-chan." Tears were forming in Sango's eyes as her oldest friend took to the sky, back ramrod straight, chin up, stance proud. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once out of sight, she told Kirara to let her down and dropped neatly to the ground. Kneeling there, she put her palms down and closed her eyes, then thrust the white fire of her magic into the earth itself and let the shock wave roll through the miles of rock beneath them. _Naraku,_ she thought fiercely. _Tell me where Naraku is._

The wave rolled over the earth, then returned to her, and she gathered the huge sphere of light into her hands. It dissolved, streams of light running down her arms, and the answer came: right where Inuyasha had suspected, a hidden corner of the mountains ringing Kiso Valley.

"Got it." Hauling herself back onto the giant cat, she added, "We're headed for the Kiso Valley, Kirara–and hurry."

Roaring, she hunched up, then leapt off and resumed their flight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

__

Black hair cascaded down her back as she finished the daily rituals that the maintenance of a temple required; only it was severely tied back. He would have liked to see it let loose–it probably looked nice.

He paused at the top of the stairs, feeling foolish and awkward. **Damn humans!** His mind yelled. **Damn damn DAMN humans!** Or really, just that one humanHe couldn't talk around her, couldn't walk around her, couldn't fight or be rude or feel like he was enough around her. He was an abomination of human and youkai: he would never be enough. 

Sky-blue eyes, eyes the shade of a robin's egg, met his. "What is it, Inuyasha?" Kikyô asked quietly. 

He shifted uncomfortably, then turned around and started to leave, muttering, "Nothing." He'd never be good enough for her. 

His hand clenched compulsively around the stems of the flower. What had he been thinking? This was stupidweak and stupid.

"Wait."

When he turned around, she was there. She took his hand and opened it, removing the single flower. "Was this for me?" Her voice was soft, soft as the petals.

He couldn't answer her and only looked away, face rapidly turning several hues of scarlet.

"Thank you." She released his hand and gave him a slight smile, then went back within the temple. He was left standing there, bewildered and blushing, and after a moment he jumped away, wanting to let out a whoop. When he saw her later, watching from a tree, the flower was tucked behind her ear. He dropped down, grinning despite himself, and was about to walk off when terrible pain exploded in his heart–an arrow?!

Eyes, hurt and confused, landed on the infuriated priestess, regarding him with those icy eyes. The flower was still in her hair

Inuyasha sat up–or tried to, but there was still that agony in his chest.

Looking down, he saw an arrow in there, and looking up, he saw Kikyô.

The breath he inhaled sharply reeked of wood, blood, metal, sweat, youkai, and Naraku. "Knock it off, you son of a bitch," he growled. His arms were on fire, his _haori_ gone, as was the inner kimono; looking down, he saw his chest–or what was left of it–was covered in blood and from what he could tell, either gashes or burns. The destructive corrosion of Kagome's Miko powers had left him with burns and open wounds wherever he'd come in contact with her; for some reason, he wasn't healing.

Naraku settled back into his own shape with a mildly displeased frown. "You always ruin my fun," he said aloofly. "That's partly why I hate you."

"Oh, gee, I'm sorry," Inuyasha grumbled, glowering at him. The manacles on his wrists pulled his arms up and slightly behind him, and they were just long enough to let him put his weight on his knees. They smelled different than regular steel, too.

"Don't you just love these?" Naraku ran a finger along one of the manacle's surface. "They restrict demon power–so you can't heal any faster than a regular, filthy human. I do love these so."

"Why can't you like something normal like puppies or kittens?" Inuyasha retorted.

"Oh, I do." Naraku grinned. "For dinner."

"If you're going to kill me, you might as well get on with it." He wasn't in the peachiest of moods–his people were in trouble and Kagome was near-dead when he'd last seen her, along with him now being chained in Naraku's stronghold–yep, his life was a rapture of joy and sunshine and bunnies right then.

"Why would I want to do that?" Naraku prodded him in the chest, right in the middle of a large burn. It had closed slightly; now it started bleeding again. One by one his wounds reopened and pain started making his vision blur, a growl building in the back of his throat. "Not when I can play with you like _this."_ Waving his hand in front of Inuyasha's hand, he released a smattering of white granules: salt. The open flesh burned at the contact. 

He needed a break–a break from the pain to think–Pulling his weight up off of his knees, he slammed both feet into Naraku, who flew across the room and hit the wall in a heap of hair and clothing. "You _bastard!"_

"Thank you," Inuyasha said smugly. 

"That god-damn _hurt,_ you dumb shit!" Naraku wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth and sent a furious glare at the half-demon smirking at him. "Are you trying to piss me off _more?!"_

"Do I have to answer that honestly?"

"No wonder no one can stand you! You are the most god-damn _stupid_, **_insolent,_** _ignorant,_ half-wit **_moron_** the world has ever seen!" Naraku stormed out of the room, looking close to completely losing it. 

Still grinning, Inuyasha tried to make himself a bit more comfortable. _Yep, I've still got it._

How could he get out of this? With his demon powers gone, so was the majority of his strength, and he wasn't precisely in the shape to be breaking steel bonds at the momentLooking up at the wood it was anchored to, a plan formed in his mind. Steel, nowood, yes

After twisting in a highly uncomfortable way, he could reach the wall. One kick, and the wood creaked. Two, it splintered. Three, the board gave way and fell with a _thwap_–

Revealing Naraku on the other side, kneeling and rocking back and forth and muttering to himself, "I _am_ a good villain, I _am_ a good villain, I _am_ a good villain."

Was that a _doll?_

Inuyasha was so. _startled_ was not the word, but there really wasn't one that fit. 

Naraku looked up to see the hanyou biting his lip in a failing attempt to keep his laughter in check. That didn't last too long.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA! Oh, _who's_ a good widdle villain? _Who's_ a good villain? Widdle Naraku-chan, he's gonna grow up and be the _best_ villain in the _world,_ yes he is!" The imitation of Kagome's talking-to-baby voice seemed only to embarrass his arch nemesis further.

"God damn it, shuddup!" Naraku threw the doll behind a vase and broke down the rest of the wall, seizing Inuyasha's free manacle and slapping the end against a stone pillar. A bit of fire locked it into the rock, the molten steel cooling rapidly. "You son of a bitch!"

"Do you want your mooooooommmmmy?" Inuyasha taunted. "Wait a second, you don't have oneYou're your own mother–that's _wrong._"

Naraku was getting more and more flustered by the minute, but then he shook his head. "You're _reeeeeeaaaaally_ asking for it, half-breed," he snarled. "In fact" He shape-shifted into Kikyô again, leaning down with a vicious grin. Even after all the years, the sight of her face still made Inuyasha instinctively flinch. "It hurts, doesn't it?" Naraku said sweetly in her voice. "It hurts to see this face. You know you killed her." He put a finger to Inuyasha's forehead, one that burned, but now he was frozen. Pain racked his head as darts of blackness pinned every thought he'd ever had down and searched it. "Oh, naughty thoughts, Inuyasha," he murmured. "Very naughty. Oh myIt seems that bitch is even stupider than I believed." Thought after thought was dredged up, each coming to his attention. Those times he'd gone to Kikyô, just to have a semblance of Kagome near him while she was in that other world–and for another reason, though he never knew what; the look in her eyes when she'd caught himbeautifully, heartbreakingly sorrowful, like echoes of Kikyô's eyes through water. Her unending cheer, masking a tumult of thoughts beneath the calm surface. He'd hurt her so many times; he'd known it and he'd gone and done it anyway.

"My word, you've really pulled that girl through hell, you know that?" Naraku gave him a syrupy smile, still in Kikyô's form. "Here you are, trying to keep Kikyô from dragging you down to hell, and you've been chucking the little wench in there every opportunity you get. Shit, boy, I have more sense than you." Tapping Inuyasha's nose, he added, "This is where the _real_ fun begins." 

Blackness rolled over him, and he hung limply from his chains.

When he awoke, there was a shape in front of him, a familiar shape It couldn't be

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Some rescue, huh?"

"Kame." He stared at her, gaze near dead. "Youwhat?"

"I was gonna bail you out, butdidn't work so well, I guess." She held up wrists bound in manacles similar to his, only free–her feet were shackled together also. 

"Are you on magic mushrooms?" he demanded. "Naraku's got thousands of demons at his beck and call! You may think you're all powerful and maybe you throw some towers around, but not even _you_ can take him on alone!"

"I'm sorry." Her chin started shaking. "II just felt so" 

Oh no. This was not happening to him.

As he watched in horror, tears started to form in her eyes. Soon she was sobbing.

"Quit crying!" he yelled. "Do you hear me?! Knock it off!"

"Why should I?" she demanded in return. "I'm never good enough, am I? I'm not good enough for you, obviously!"

"Wha–_what?!"_

"Every time I went back to my time, I come back and find you wrapped around Kikyô!" Tears were still pouring down her face, each one a blow to his guilt, each word a knife to his heart. "If you had known she was still around when I left and sealed the well, you would have found her and you'd have a nice litter of half-dead children by now! If it came between me and her, you'd take her, and don't you dare lie about it!"

"Kagome–"

"I hate myself! I hate you!" Her eyes were almost glowing with fury now. "You ruined my life, you ruined me, and I hope you're goddamned _happy_ about it! I'll _never_ be normal, thanks to you and your stupid jewel and your stupid problems and your obsession with me finding the jewel for you. Sure, you fight a lot, but when it comes down to it, I got hurt more! _I_ got kidnapped, _I_ nearly got my soul possessed, _I_ nearly got killed time and time again all for you and your stupid jewel! I could be happy right now, safe at home in my own time, but _no,_ here I am, sitting in a dungeon next to some half-monster _freak_ who belongs in a cage! I see why Kikyô never let her humanity in–she never wanted to get screwed over by you and your issues! Emotions are weakness!" 

She seized him by the throat, grip surprisingly strong. "Emotions are going to destroy you, like they destroyed Kikyô," she growled. "Emotions are weakness."

Scarlet was bleeding into the cloudy blue of her eyes.

__

"Naraku," Inuyasha choked out, vision graying.

"I have no weak emotions, so I have no weakness." Her hair turned into rippling strings and eyes slanted and red as he shifted into his own form again; the hanyou couldn't see anything, yet he clung to consciousness like a shipwrecked man to a plank of wood in the sea. "Emotions are human and a human weakness. You, half-breed–your weak human emotions are your death! They destroyed Kikyô, they will destroy you, and when I'm finished with you it will be that little bitch's emotions that destroy–"

Something white-blue flashed through the grayness and slammed into the side of Naraku's head. He was sent flying into the wall once more and Inuyasha dropped to his knees again, gasping for breath.

Kagome's voice rang out colder than ice, sharp as a whip cracking. "Guess again, you son of a _bitch."_

He lifted clearing eyes to find the priestess glowing white, bow and arrows at the ready and staff secured to her back. Her fists were giving off eerie white-blue flames; it was one of them that had knocked Naraku away. 

"Remember the first time we did this?" Kagome asked coolly. "You had lured Sango-chan into bringing the Tetsusaiga to you and trapped us all in the miasma. You were going to kill us, because Miroku couldn't suck up any of the miasma or his Air Rip would consume him. We thought we were all going to die." She brought her bow up, an arrow pointed directly at Naraku. "And then I did this."

Inuyasha managed to close his eyes and twist away from the direct force before the huge ball of light exploded in front of Naraku. The whiteness rushed past him like a herd of wild horses, and the manacles dissolved, letting his tortured arms fall down. He held in a snarl of pain when the stiff muscles were shot with pain, sighed in relief as his wounds healed in a flash, then turned to see how Naraku had fared.

His head and about six inches of his torso were bouncing around on the floor, screaming obscenities no child ever deserved to hear. Three puppets ran in and picked him up, and then they burst into flames. Naraku's body regenerated and he gave Kagome the nastiest look Inuyasha had ever seen.

She returned that look with a fury of such intensity that he almost shrank from it. He had caused everything to go wrong, things so much more important than tests and her life back in her own time, things that would decide the future; it was time he paid up.

Something shot out from beneath her _haori_, just underneath where it overlapped, and stopped right between them: the Shikon Jewel.

"The Jewel!" Naraku leapt forward–and at the same time she was dragged forward.

"Stop!" She put an arrow at his feet and he halted as a bubble of white power momentarily paralyzed him. What was going on? She couldn't move back, and yet something was dragging her towards the Jewel of Four SoulsSlowly leeching strands of white and dark-purple power drifted out off the crystal and started rotating around it. The white strands slowed when they came closest to her, as did the black-purple ones for Naraku. 

Then the white gathered into dozens of tendril-like arms and reached for her, the purple stretching to Naraku. 

This was her dream.

"No–_no!"_ She tried to take a step back, to get away from those arms. They were going to pull her into something, something she wanted to stay away from–she wasn't ready–her feet moved slightly back–

The arms shot out and wrapped themselves around her arms, drawing her to the now steadily-pulsing jewel. White pulsed once, then purple, then white, then purpleas she and Naraku were steadily towed towards the jewel, both straining, both struggling fiercely, the pulses grew faster and brighter, until she was near-blinded. "Help me–somebody!" No matter how she fought to escape, those arms were holding her fast

Another set of arms, real, flesh, locked around her, stopping the inexorable pull. Then it started up again and the pressure started building. Inuyasha held her close: she could smell him, feel his youki and him at her back, see his white hair being pulled towards the jewel by an invisible and unfelt wind–or perhaps by the same force that was pulling Naraku or her

The arms wanted her and they weren't going to give up. Her muscles were screaming with pain, her joints creaking and bones shivering Something seemed to detach from her, something white-blue and misty, and hover between the jewel and herher vision was splitting to a view of herself locked in Inuyasha's grip, being pulled to the jewel, and the view from her true eyes Naraku was frozen in the same spot as her, halfway to the jewel. It wanted them, and what the jewel wanted, it got. It was the most powerful thing on Earthshe couldn't stop it

__

Oh God, I'm going to be torn apartI don't want to go–I don't want to go into the jewel! Make it stop! **Make it stop!** **I WON'T GO IN!**

An ear-splitting boom rocked the castle to its foundation, and an explosion threw Inuyasha back. Kagome's weight in his arms was suddenly gone, and he desperately hoped she would be alright–he couldn't lose her now

The white explosion bloomed up, stripping away the castle walls: the ground beneath him vanished, and he was drifting in white; it ripped over the lands as a white wave, touching nothing but sending a blast of wind howling in its wake. After the wave had passed, another light speared the sky and a shiver rang through the earth itself. A crack snapped in the air and it vanished, and then all was silence.

Sitting up, he felt something trickle down his temple and put a hand to his ear: it came back with crimson liquid on it. His ears were bleeding from the overwhelming noise. [AN: Actually, my ear's bleeding right now but for an entirely different reason, as there was a scab and it was in the upper curve of my ear. If anyone knows why that would be, help me out here, cuz I don't have a damn clue and I've got no piercings up there and I don't recall cutting/puncturing it. Also, the scab is really more of a dark black. Any ear doctor readers out there, HELP ME! Maybe I've got, um, ear cancer?] 

Inuyasha stood, looking around, and found one good thing, one strange thing, and one bad thing. 

There was no sign of Naraku, which was the good thing. There was a big, round hole that appeared to go down about as deep as the time-well right beneath where the Shikon Jewel had exploded, which was the strange thing.

The bad thing was that there was no sign of Kagome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kagome woke feeling like she had a hangover, and an extremely nasty one at that. The strange thing was, she didn't recall ever getting drunk; nor did she recall traveling back to the well and falling down it, for that matter. 

She sat up with a groan and found the Shikon Jewel in her hand. If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn that it was giving off a dissatisfied aura–in fact, that it was _sulking._

The Jewel.

The pull.

The explosion.

__

Inuyasha! He could have been hurt–what about Kirara, too–and here she was, in her time–what the _hell_ had happened? She scrambled out of the well, then jumped in.

__

Thud.

And met dirt.

"Oh, _shit!"_ She stood shakily, then froze. The well hadn't worked?

She climbed up and flung herself in, hit the hard-packed ground, and tried again to no avail. She dug in the earth, she did an opening spell, she hit it, and nothing worked.

Her tears fell onto the ground as she slammed her fist into it, hysterical. Inuyasha could be hurt, could be _dead,_ and she was _stuck!_

Then, with horror, she realized the worst. Nothing had worked and she'd tried all she knew. 

She couldn't return to the past again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a hidden corner between the mountains of the Kiso Valley, something dark and battered moved slowly, rising to its knees. It was on the bottom of a hole of some sort

After dragging his battered body up and out of the pit, Naraku staggered to his feet, then made his way to the edge of the crevasse he was in. 

Before him lay the lights of a small town, one that had not been there last time he had looked out upon these lands. And such clear, unwavering lights

A plane soared overhead, lights flashing in the night sky. Of course, he did not know that it was a plane.

What he did know was that his castle had been destroyed, that his armies no longer lived. But he could feel the power of infinite more youkai than the ones alive in the past.

And he knew where he was: in that bitch from the future's time. She had somehow turned the Jewel on him, and he was left without anything but his own powers.

He would turn the world on her.

His ears caught two snow-youkai's conversation a hundred feet away: they hadn't seen him. 

"My old grandpa, he always talks about the good ol' days when some guy named Naraku was around. Says he got good pay, but it was a bitch to try to fight Inuyasha and his lot."

"And what happened?"

"Dunno. Gramps says he just disappeared one day, when there was this big explosion. I tell ya, we could use a guy like that Naraku now, get us organized, but no one's going to listen to another demon, none of em are any more powerful than the rest."

A grin crept slowly across Naraku's face, and he turned his eyes once more towards the lands of a new time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**__**

GAH! I have FIVE HOURS of homework and it's 8:47! I've got to get going on it, or I'd write moreNext chapter is going to be called Alone.' Draw your own conclusions.


	6. Alone

To Rebuild the Lost Past

Chapter Six: Alone

**__**

What. thehell am I doing?

This is the day after I just posted the last chapter, y'know, today's December 6thright.

I think I got about two hours of sleep last night.

-_- zzzz

O.O Wait! No! Must

Well, after dragging myself through school today, which was a barrel of fun and a half due to the fact that after doing research and writing a paper and making an extremely elaborate visual and writing ten Jeopardy questions we didn't use on the Scopes "Monkey" Trial and Darwinism, I didn't have any time to do the assignments for my other two classes. And.

::sits up:: ::gasp:: God DAMMIT! Where's a Caramel Machiatto when ya need one?!

AnywayNow this story really_ won't leave me alone, so I have to continue itAnd guess what? Now I really _do _know where it's going!_

::does happy dance:: Ooh, you're going to hate me!

Oh, quick author's note: you may have noticed this, you may not have. I have switched from spelling Inu-Yasha's name to Inuyasha, for the reasons that it seems more authentic and that I am a lazy ass and don't want to take the time to type an extra dash and capitalize. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Soif I owned Inuyasha, I'd

::sits straight up again, but with hearts in eyes this time:: LEGOLAS?!WHERE?! Oh DAMN, it was a dream! T_T

Oh yeah, and the lyrics in this are from Enya's LOVELY song, "Evening Falls." In case you can't tell what's lyric and what's regular story, it's going to be in bold and Italics like this, AND it'll be in the center of the page. A sentence in just bold and Italics means it's mind-to-mind speech.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any good mother knew when her baby was in trouble, and Higurashi Kioko was no exception. Granted, her daughter had been off battling demons for the past week or so, but while she hadn't been able to shake the feeling that Kagome was in more trouble than normal at a few points, this was altogether different.

Perhaps her daughter was coming back, then, to refill her pack and take a hot bath, eat dinner, and then head back out to the battlefield of the past.

"Hey kaa-chan, check this out!" The twenty-three-year-old Souta thundered down the stairs, a book in one hand and the other marking a page. "Nee-chan's in my mythology book!"

"What?!" 

"Listen!" Souta squared his shoulders and gravely intoned, "During the warring states period, the war between demons and priests escalated even further. Many of the Sou and Miko earned fame in this time, but most peculiar is the tale of a half-demon and the mysterious priestess. The half inu-youkai, known as Inuyasha, had fallen in love with Kikyô, priestess and keeper of the Shikon Jewel, a stone of enormous and unknown power. Another man, a wounded bandit Kikyô tended to because his injuries were so grave as to prevent him from moving, also desired her. He sold his soul to a horde of demons, which possessed him, becoming the infamous Naraku. When Kikyô and Inuyasha agreed to purify the Shikon no Tama by using its powers to turn him completely human, Naraku attacked each in the other's form, sowing feelings of hatred and betrayal. He took the Shikon Jewel from Kikyô and planted it in the shrine, where Inuyasha stole it from as he also attacked the village in his rage. The dying Kikyô, having been mortally wounded in Naraku's attack but believing it was Inuyasha, shot the fleeing half-demon with an arrow charged with her powers. It pinned him to a tree where he slept, unaging, for fifty years. Kikyô, however, did not use the Shikon's power to heal herself, instead choosing to pass into the next life in hopes that it would be with Inuyasha, whom she still cared for. Her body was burned with the Shikon Jewel still in her hands.

After fifty years, a mysterious girl with a countenance eerily similar to Kikyô's appeared, though none knew from where, for her garments were foreign. Kaede, Kikyô's sister, found her and suspected the girl, Kagome, was Kikyô's reincarnation, though she did not voice it. A centipede youkai attacked the village the night and chased Kagome to the tree where Inuyasha slept, though he miraculously awakened when she was nearby, though he was unable to move. Kagome released him after being wounded by the centipede youkai and the Shikon Jewel had sprung from her wound. 

In an accident caused when a crow demon stole it, the jewel was shattered into countless pieces by an arrow of Kagome's. Inuyasha and Kagome were forced to work together to collect every shard, for within each resided the partial power of the whole jewel. They fought many difficult battles, though at first it was mostly Inuyasha who fought their foes using the power of the Tetsusaiga, a sword forged of his father's fang. Then a twist of fate brought Kikyô back to life, though Kagome's soul was stripped from her momentarily. Kikyô had been resurrected by the craft of Urasue, ogress who brought the dead back to life by making a clay body for them and returning their soul. Kikyô insisted that Inuyasha had betrayed her, alerting him to the fact that someone had tricked them both, but at the moment Kikyô was trying to kill him again. Kagome somehow managed to reclaim her soul, leaving what was supposed to be an empty shell of the earthen Kikyô, but the remaining feelings of hatred drove her on and she departed. 

The orphaned kitsune Shippô was already traveling with them, and soon after joined Miroku, a priest cursed with a gate to hell in a hole in his hand that pulled anything nearby into it unless sealed by a rosary, as it was for the most part. Sango, one of two survivors of the Taiji-ya, also decided to seek out the shards and Naraku with them.

It became rapidly apparent that Kagome possessed powers beyond that of even Kikyô and perhaps Midoriko, maker of the Shikon Jewel. While this aided them in the fight against Naraku, it never was the focus of the group until one day when Kagome was sixteen. She lost control over her powers and they nearly annihilated Inuyasha, Shippô, and Sango's neko-youkai Kirara. She received training, mastering arts that took lifetimes to learn over the course of three months, and then they were forced into a major battle with Naraku. This time, however, they didn't escape—they won. The Shikon Jewel was completed; by all logic, they should have lived happily ever after.

However, Naraku somehow returned at the same time as Kagome simply vanished off the face of the earth for thirteen years. While she was gone, Inuyasha built a system of Miko and youkai to fight Naraku and a fort to act as headquarters. She returned briefly for a week, during which Kikyô was killed and the lingering hatred possessed Kagome, whose mind was completely overtaken and she was forced to demolish parts of the fort. Inuyasha broke her free of the spell, weakening himself; Naraku kidnapped****Inuyasha; Kagome went to rescue him, leveled Naraku's stronghold, and neither she nor Naraku were seen again."

**__**

When the evening falls and the daylight is fading,

From within me calls - could it be I am sleeping?

For a moment I stray, then it holds me completely.

"That sounds about right." Kagome was leaning against the wall, eyes underlined in shockingly dark shadows, clothed in traditional Miko garments that were smudged and torn. "The well isn't working right now. Can I have a bath?"

"Kagome-chan—what—I don't understand," her mother said helplessly.

"For whatever reason, the well isn't working," she repeated tiredly, voice similar to when she'd come out thirteen years ago. "I can't go back until I figure out how to open it up again, and right now I really want a bath. And sleep."

"Of—of course." Her mother hurried to prepare one and Souta watched his older sister with wide eyes. 

__

"And they were never seen again," the book had said.

He wasn't liking the way this was looking.

**__**

Close to home –I cannot say.

Close to home, feeling so far away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She wasn't going to let herself think about it. She didn't know everything; there had to be old manuscripts and books, _someone_ who knew a way for her to return to the past. Even in her heart, she knew she wouldn't go through the well ever again, but she was going to lie to her mind until she couldn't anymore. 

Kagome barely made her way to her bed before collapsing on it. Sleep came, swift and unstoppable, and she fell to it without even changing out of the sweatshirt and jeans she had on.

It was the dream from before, but without the grayness of Inuyasha to intercede. The blackness was more intent on something else, too, and she was almost entirely inside the jewel when she awoke this time. She'd been screaming, screaming and trying to break free

When she awoke, the screaming was still there, but not hers.

There was a youkai in the house. 

She flew down the stairs and into the living room, where Souta was trying to keep back an enormous cross between a lizard and a wasp with what she recognized as a katana she'd had in her room for emergencies. It hissed at him and swiped at her mother, trapped in a corner of the room. 

White-blue lashed from her palms, wrapping around the youkai and shoving it through the door. She'd need more space to kill this one.

It had broken the power-bonds and was slowly getting up once more when she reached the door. Quickly she drew three bands of light in the air once more and they wrapped around it. Crossing her forearms, she tightened the bands, then snapped her wrists back so they were at shoulder height and uncrossed. The ropes neatly sliced through the demon and it fell, squealing, then vanished into dust.

"Hey nee-chan," Souta said after a moment, "you wanna show _me_ how to do that?"

She was preoccupied by the fact that she could sense many more youkai than normal. Many, _many_ more. "Souta-chan, go turn on the news." She took a step outside, then another, then another. Something was happening, something big

"Nee-chan!"

She came inside immediately, surveying the damage done, but the words issuing from the television caught her ears. It was the International Channel, established around 2005 and used only for big news. It itself was broadcast from a station in Tokyo, a skyscraper that was the largest in the world at six hundred and fifty stories, and the signal was translated in every language and sent to every nation. It was also one of the most guarded buildings in the world—no matter what, the news had to get through. 

__

"The world is in a state of crisis as what appear to be, despite all logic, **youkai** attacking every nation. Entire mountains have poured out youkai, rivers overflowing with kappa and demons coming from everywhere. The death toll is rising worldwide and riots are taking place. Many religions are claiming that this is the beginning of Judgement Day, while others claim it is a punishment from higher powers. What exactly caused this seeming uprising is unknown, and authorities are struggling for both answers and safety.

"Strangely enough, the castle of Matsumoto has remained untouched." A picture of none other than Inuyasha's fort appeared on the screenbut that couldn't be right, where was the wall? And it was supposed to be _in_ the Japanese Alps, not in front of them!_ "No one can speculate why, but the local priests claim that youkai have stayed away for centuries and that it emanates a holy aura. Some speculate that it may be the castle fortress of the obscure legend of a daimyo that battled a demon leader, though it was said to be in the Japanese Alps."_

There was no mistaking it. That was Inuyasha's fort, and she'd never knownand something had risen to make war. It was no coincidence that the youkai revolt came the morning after she'd returned to her own time, but this was another time, practically another world. She was likely to be the only Miko in the world who knew how to use her powers, and she couldn't wipe out every youkai in the world.

__

"An unknown man has been spotted, wearing old-fashioned clothing, at the site of every major attack. While he doesn't participate, authorities believe he may be the mind behind this attack or one of the sub-commanders. We have some rare footage of him during the attack on Yokohama."

The woman's face was replaced by a wobbling view from a home camera. It was documenting the terror as youkai after youkai swept down, lurched through the streets, and scaled skyscrapers like trees. It panned around, catching violent scene after violent scene, then paused on a figure on the top of another building. The lens zoomed in, further and further, and to Kagome's horror the countenance of Naraku drew nearer until his cold scarlet eyes were visible, gazing with satisfaction at the destruction below. Then they lowered to the camera, and he vanished, reappearing before the videotaper with an icy, cruel smirk on his face. "Come get me, _Miko."_

****

As I walk there before me a shadow

From another world, where no other can follow.

Carry me to my own, to where I can cross over

Then the tape turned to grayness, and the face of the announcer returned. _"The last thing he says and why he is able to move with such speed is a mystery. No one knows if he is referring to every Miko or to one, or why. If anyone has any knowledge of who this man is, please contact the authorities through this number. Everyone is advised to stay inside and arm themselves with a weapon of any kind."_

"It's on every channel," Souta said after a long silence.

Kagome sat down on the couch, feeling totally empty. This was not happening to her. This was not her life. 

What had she done? What had she led to her time?

She needed a way to impart knowledge to those with powers, a way to keep people without them safe, a way to fight back when the attack was everywhere and the battlefield was the earth. But how? Sango could get word out fast on Kirara, as could Shippô

With a dull pang, she remembered: they weren't here, Naraku was. 

She was alone.

"I need you to drive me, Souta," she said quietly. "Let me get ready."

"Right, Nee-chan." He left to get his keys. She rose, deep in thought. Her bow and arrows, her staff, and her: would they be enough?

It was time to find out.

**__**

Close to home –I cannot say.

Close to home, feeling so far away.

The jeep bounced down the road, Souta scowling at his sister. "I wish you would sit down, Nee-chan."

"I wish I could, Souta." She needed to have the best aiming position possible if anything tried to attack. 

Right on cue, a troll burst from the roadside foliage, roaring ferociously. 

__

Perfect.

"Stop, Souta." She caught the thing with a magic bond and flung it into the road in front of them, then got out and walked over. "Hello there." It responded with a not-very-nice suggestion. "I would watch your mouth if I were you," she replied. "You know that really famous Miko who vanished same time as Naraku about five hundred years back or so?" While it made no answer, the look in its eyes affirmed its knowledge. She put a foot on its chest and leaned closer. "That's me. Now, let's try something easy." The bow creaked as she drew an arrow and pointed it directly between its eyes. "Where is Naraku going to attack next?"

"I don't know." A mental check showed it was lying, but she couldn't pry into its head. 

"You know, this morning, I woke up to find a youkai attacking my family," she said lightly, tone reminiscing. "I bound it in spirit-ropes, then let them slice it into about seven different pieces. Slowly, too. It screamed a lot. And there was lots of blood."

Souta gave her a surprised look as he arrived at her side, but added with an appreciative look at the troll, "Yeah, took a while to clean up."

"He's going back to Kiso Valley," the troll said hastily.

"Thank you." She bowed, then fired the shot into its eye anyway. It cried out, then disintegrated. It was always important to be polite.

"There's no way we'll make it to Kiso Valley in time," Souta said quietly. "And even then, the world's crawling in demons. We don't stand a chance."

Kagome turned her eyes towards Tokyo, face speculative. "We aren't going to the Kiso Valley. How many people are dead, Souta?"

"Thousands, millions, I don't know." He shrugged, pale. "Large cities took it the hardest."

"We're going to Tokyo." She climbed in and turned on the radio, waiting for him.

Souta found himself thinking back on when Kagome was just fifteen and had never been down the well with longing. 

She mechanically destroyed demon after demon as they rode through the countryside, face hard and expressionless. This was a whole new side to Kagome, one that Souta had never seen, and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not, but she was keeping them both alive so he wasn't going to argue. The city was far worse, demons walking the streets, bodies everywhere, blood running down the walls of buildings and in cars; it was a nightmare world. When too many demons tried to stop the jeep and Souta was looking like he'd have a hernia, Kagome set up a shield, sat down, and told him to stop the car. "This is going to be strange, alright? I'm going to kill the demons nearby, but it's going to take a lot out of me with just my strength and nothing to carry it." A raindrop fell on her forehead and she scowled. "Just what we need right now Anyway, no matter what, we need to get to the television station. It's still in action, which means it's being guarded, and I need to contact a bunch of people. Now, don't freak out and don't make any noise." She took a deep breath and started charging up her powers, fueling them with the Shikon Jewel.

"Wait!" The raindrops started falling faster as Souta seized her arm and she glared at him. "No—Nee-chan, you need a conductor, right? Put your power in the clouds, the rain'll fall on the demons outdoors and it'll take some of it off! And the youkai won't be able to go outside until it dries!"

She paused, wide-eyed, then reached over and hugged her brother tightly. "Souta, you are a genius! Now really don't make any noise, this is going to take more work but less power" 

A beam of light, visible only to those with the Sight, came from the small black jeep and pierced the heavens. Slowly, ripples of light started rolling through the clouds, and they began to glow until it was as light as a cloudless day.

Lightning flashed once, twice, and then glowing rain fell onto the demons advancing towards the car, the demons in the streets, every demon underneath the clouds. Shrieks rose from everywhere; they were dying where they stood. A few drops and they were doomed, each a dart of power that spread through their veins, deadly as instant poison. Soon all that was left were wary eyes watching the jeep winding through the streets and piles of soaked ash.

Kagome was breathing hard, sweat rolling down her face, but it wasn't too taxing. She could have used more of the Shikon's power, but for now she wanted to leave it untapped. "Are you all right?" Souta demanded, swerving around another dying youkai. 

She would have forced her eyes open, but it wasn't too urgent. "I'm fine. Keep driving. Remind me to get you better Christmas presents from now on tooThis works really well."

The radio announcer was excitedly proclaiming that somehow the rain of Tokyo was killing the demons when they arrived. She had recovered by then, only to find a heavily guarded skyscraper. Men with guns were posted all around the perimeter, with helicopters circling overhead and people crammed within a chain-link fence.

The clouds were clearing away, taking the lethal rain with them, but they'd leave a swath of dead demons in their path and the power-spell wouldn't wear off for a few hours. She swiftly got out of the car, as did Souta, and ran towards the men. 

A youkai charged at them, a hideous pig-creature. She didn't have time for arrows; taking up her staff, she drew on the power crystal still capping it and fired a beam of light at the thing. It vanished with a long, screeching squeal as shouts arose from the guards, but they didn't have time for questioning as the rest of the pig-youkai descended on them.

__

Oh no, not now Her grip tightened on the staff. She took a deep breath and barked, "Souta, stay near me," then started backing towards the guards so none of the demons could get behind her and harm them. The crystal started glowing; if she didn't want to pass out and leave them vulnerable, she'd have to draw on the Shikon Jewel. Pulling it from underneath her shirt, she set it against the larger crystal. It passed into it and hung in the center, starting to radiate light. 

Fifty, sixty pig demons and her. It was time to show the world what she was made of. 

She raised the staff over her head, then brought the foot of it down on the pavement with a crack, unaware that the helicopters were circling nearer to her and her every action was being shown worldwide. A ring of power [AN: My _preciousssssss_] appeared, circling her shoulders and slowly rotating, then expanded, a rippling halo of white fire. Three hundred million pairs of eyes—almost all of the population of Earth that was left—watched in fascination as the blazing circle reached a radius of twenty feet, then started spinning faster and faster until a humming noise was dragged from the unwilling air. More demons drew nearer, unsuspecting—

And the ring flashed out in a burst of ice-white. Flares of clear white flame rose from every youkai it touched, ripping through score upon score of them and leaving everything else untouched. Shikon light, a pale lavender, ran weakly over everything like streaks of paint over a wet watercolor painting, and the source itself was as fiercely bright as a sun on earth. 

Kagome fought to control the power she had brought into being with difficulty. She had purposely avoided using as much of her power as she could, reserving it for a real emergency. The crystal on her staff had somehow adjusted to not just the temporary presence of the Shikon Jewel but to absorb the fear-energy being given off anytime, anywhere, and it now had a dizzying amount of power. Nothing to rival the Shikon no Tama, but it wasn't anything to sneeze at. She needed that extra strength, because both sources renewed themselves a lot faster than her magic did.

Within seconds, in addition to the soggy piles of ash left from the Miko rain, there were also fresh heaps of ashes. In a few cases, flames still licked up from them.

"Anyone got marshmallows?" Kagome asked casually.

"Can you show me how to do that one too?" Souta asked weakly.

"Come on, we've got to get this organized." She turned heel and strode towards the gateway, black hair streaming behind her like a curtain of pure black ink. Her eyes were cold and hard, like everything else around her: it was as if something had possessed her, made her an unshakeable warrior. 

**__**

Forever searching; never right,

I am lost in oceans of night.

And then she understood. 

After all the denial, after all the insistence to herself and to others, she had—failed? Had she failed?

Perhaps not them, but had she failed herself?

No, it wasn't true. It was what the world needed right now.

It was neither the Shikon Jewel's appearance nor the physical resemblance that convinced her now. It was who she had become.

She was Kikyô.****

Forever hoping I can find memories,

Those memories I left behind.

No time for deep identity searches, Kagome! She came face-to-face with the guards, eyeing them with the gaze of a seasoned general. "Let me through."

"What did you just do?" demanded one. "How can we know you're not some kind of demon?"

She cast a pointed glance at the still-flaming bodies. "Need I say more?"

"You can't come in here without an ID," he insisted stubbornly.

She knew what Kikyô would have done right then: she would have pushed the man aside and continued for the sake of the greater good. But there _was_ a difference between her and her past life, and she didn't work quite the same way. Kikyô had done everything and given her life to protect her village, that one village, from the evil youkai and the forces of darkness. She would have made sacrifices, either of herself or of one villager for ten more; it was all to keep that one village safe from demons.

But what could Kagome do when the world was her village?

"Listen to me," she said quietly. "I am possibly the only one in the entire world who knows how to fight the demons effectively. People are dying because there is no one to protect them but I; I am going to teach those who can learn how to fight. Every second you delay me may cost another hundred people their lives." 

He stared at her for a second, then stepped aside, bowing.

The people parted before her, Souta trailing after his sister with a somewhat awed expression on his face. Not a sound was heard as they entered the building, though eyes followed Kagome with fear and wonder. She knew it and disliked the fear from thembut it fed her crystal, at least.

It was the eyes, the eyes that bothered her the most. Those eyes had been so careless, so free of worry, and now they were haunted. She knew without hearing that there were mothers without children watching her, wondering where she had been when their babies were slaughtered by ogres; she knew there were parentless children, or those who'd seen their life's love die before their eyes. After the demons had faded away, innocence had returned in a sense; they'd come back to Eden.

But the apple core was all that was left now, and the red juice running like blood down their faces. 

Her heart ached for every one of them, but she continued on. She could not show a moment's hesitation, a moment's weakness, or the demons would take her.

A news anchor met her the minute she stepped out of the elevator and led her to the studio, then thrust them both in front of the cameras. "Miko-sama, what just happened? How is it you were able to defeat so many demons where guns can't? Who are you, and what caused this attack?"

"My name is Kagome Higurashi," she said slowly. "The translator is in effect, correct?"

"H-Hai," the woman replied.

"Then I want everyone to get near a television, no matter where you are." How was she going to do this? This wasn't going to be easy by any means "Get everyone you can find near a television." She waited for a moment, still thinking and allowing herself a few moments to prepare. Then, with a deep breath, she began to really speak.

"As you've all seen, demons are real. For whatever reason, they weren't around for about five hundred years, and in those years we've grown complacent. Some of you may have heard of the legend of Inuyasha, the hanyou who united priests, priestesses, and demons to fight the greatest evil, Naraku. Some of you may recall there was a Kagome in that legend—that was me; for some reason, I was able to time travel.

"This war is over something that is has enough power to blast a hole through time and space, to grant wishes, to—to do anything imaginable, most likely. It's this." She withdrew the jewel from the fear-crystal. "This is the Shikon Jewel. It lends extraordinary power to whoever possesses it, and for years there has been a war for the possession of it. Naraku has somehow come to our time, aroused the demons of the world against us, and now seeks me out because I hold the Jewel. I was trained in my powers, as you saw outside this building, but I am not the only one in the world that _has_ these powers. I want to bring everyone who has the powers here so I can teach you to protect yourself and others. Then, as one, we will erect shields to repel evil youkai over every major city in the world, and they will be havens. Once we have finished, you will be returned. Some of the living youkai whose ancestors or perhaps themselves, served under Inuyasha, I beg of you to come to me in Tokyo. The time has come to rise against Naraku once again—for the sake of humanity, for the sake of every race and species, for the sake of the world itself." Tapping her staff on the wall, she took another breath and started warming up her powers. "I am going to draw a ring on here. If you can see it, touch the television screen where it is and you will be transported here. If not, do not touch the screen."

She drew a basic white ring on the blue screen and set it to be only visible to those with holy powers, but turned to the cameras and reached out to them. Power leapt out from her fingertips and into the cables, then ran though the building and into the city and out, racing every swifter into the countryside. Sparkles of power bounced off of satellites, shot over the ocean, darted through wires and coiled inside the television sets. She fed it on as much of the fear energy as possible and spurred it on even further, setting on every screen a tiny portal that would take them directly into the city of Tokyo—but only if touched by the hand of one with powers. 

Hundreds of thousands of eyes, miniature windows, opened in her mind, and she saw people of every race and country leaning in, eyes wide, and fingertips just brushing the screen before they were pulled through the wire, matter in their body condensed into no more than a speck and hurled through the electrical cords and along the satellite signals until they reached the empty streets, where with a pop they were restored, looking bewilderedly at the sky mottled in clouds and the still-damp streets. Ten, twenty, thirty, hundreds—within a minute they were all there.

"Thank you," Kagome said graciously before walking to the nearest window, opening it briskly, and stepping out, plummeted down towards the ground about a thousand feet away. Power shot in a sheet from her back, then split to two and formed gently glimmering white wings that fanned out and slowed her fall to little more than a dandelion's seed drifting down. Eyes of every imaginable color followed the red-and-white figure until it dropped neatly onto a ledge where she could be visible. A twist of her own magic, and a channel opened to every person so that it would be as if she was speaking from no more than three feet away. Another twist, and interwoven was the thread of understanding that would translate every word into their individual languages. The third opened another channel: one that linked their minds to her and let open the gates of knowledge. "Let's begin," she said calmly, while her magic was analyzing every person and recording his or her Miko strength. "You have powers, powers that can guard the people of this world. I am going to transmit knowledge to you of spells that are appropriate for your amount of magic, along with how much power you have, what youkai you will be able to defeat, and basic skills any Sou and Miko needs. Don't be afraid and don't fight me, or else I won't be able to help you and you won't be able to help anyone else. If there are any questions, concentrate on that and you will get an answer." Thousands of inquiries assaulted her mind, but she transferred the answers to the fear crystal and directed them to that until no more came. "On the count of three, I will send you the knowledge. Accept it, and you will master your abilities. We will build shields to protect the greater cities, where everyone can stay until the crisis is over, and then you will be returned to your family. Do not accept, and you will be returned immediately to your family anyway. One." She took a deep breath, ignoring the wild thoughts of how much everything had changed in less than twelve hours and how no one would have seen this coming, and steeled herself. "Two." It would be her own power that fueled this because no one was able to pass magic to her and the type of strength in the crystals would not work for this spell. It might drain her dry, so she set the Shikon to restore her within five seconds of passing out, no matter what it cost the Jewel: it wasn't the one that had to lead these people in saving the world.

"Three."

With the force of water rushing from a broken dam, thoughts slammed into her mind as she connected to every other. The pain—her skull was going to shatter and she would burst like a sore—

__

Get it in control, Kagome! Pull yourself together, these people **need** you!

Deep breath, deep breath, in-two-three, out-two-three. Countless mouths opened in sync with hers to release the breath within their lungs, closed and pulled in air through their nose, opened and let the air out, until she was blocking the pain out. 

__

Now onto the knowledge. She gathered all the spells and thoughts and notions she knew, then set her magic. It had taken stock of all of the people's abilities, and now she combined the two, using the ability-measure as a filter to determine what each individual could do. She was left with immeasurable information to dispense and, unless she drained herself _past_ dry, not enough magic to do it.

__

Some people will be able to restore me—I'll include the message that they should send me some strength with their information. She added that into the "boiling pot" as it were, noting with dismay that she was swiftly draining herself further. She had to cut ties to that spell as soon as humanly possible, or else she wasn't going to be able to pull it off. Even now, she was wondering if those who had the ability to transmit strength to her would be able to in time.

__

Enough! Get it out, NOW!

It was like a tidal wave swept over the crowd, bolts of light sweeping out and hovering in front of them. Most closed their eyes and accepted it; a few did not and vanished, returned home. No more than ten.

There were more people to get the spell out to, more, she _had_ to get it to themKagome locked down on it with her will, pushing every scrap of power she had at the funnel to way to the people had become. She _had_ to make it, she _had_ to, above all she _must_ get them this vital knowledge

She wasn't going to make it. None of those with transmission power had quite mastered it yet, and her powers were now so closely bound into the spell that it was ripping them from her, no matter how she tried to stop it. 

A white-blue light slowly ran into the power heading to the void, ever nearing the edge, and with horror she realized it was her soul. The spell was going to feed from her soul itself, bleed it from her and suck her dry until she was naught but an empty husk.

A hand seized hers tightly and fresh power roared in, throwing back the little she had left and pouring into the void. The last person was granted knowledge, the black hole sealing, and she cut it off, the physical repercussions causing her to stagger and hang onto the railing for dear life, gasping for breath. 

Her staff was handed to her and she allowed the fear crystal and the Shikon Jewel to pump strength into her until, at long length, she could stand. Only then did she open her eyes and view for the first time the person who had saved her.

The girl looked to be about seventeen, with night-black hair that was tied into a tight ponytail, two sections dropping on either side of her face to just past her shoulders, bangs falling into deep blue-violet eyes, speckled with gold near the pupil. She had a sheath at her side and wore a black tank top with wide straps and loose black pants of a material Kagome couldn't place. A slight but not unpleasant aura of youki hung around her, like the citrus tang of lemonade. Her eyes were friendly but had a familiar look in them, one Kagome was all too familiar with: the look of one who has loved and lost.

The one thing that stunned Kagome was that she had powers almost as strong as her own, a blazing light inside her. How she could exist without her own nature ripping her apart was beyond her imagination.

[AN: This is _not_ a blatant self-insert, trust me. If it was, she'd be red-haired, unnaturally green-eyed, have a huge bust and be THE MOST POWERFUL SORCERESS IN THE WORLD!!!!! (and end up, somehow, with Legolas proposing to her, even thought this is an IY story.) See? No self-insert.]

"Hi there," she said casually. "Dr. Livingston, I presume?"

"Something like that," Kagome said dazedly.

"Actually, I take it you're Ka-Kagome-sama." She stuck out a hand, and Kagome shook it dazedly. "I'm Kahori, native of the ravaged future. Certain things have to happen around this time, and they didn't happen when I didn't go, so I'm here this time around to help you out cuz I'm the strongest Miko available and hopefully that'll change my time from a nuclear wasteland to sunshine-and-daisies. You know, that kind of thing." Kagome couldn't bring herself to reply, still wondering if she was dreaming this girl. How could she live with both being a youkai and a Miko? By rights, she couldn't even exist! "Oh, yeah, you're wondering about me being alive, right? I'm quarter youkai, and it doesn't show up except once a month and in my eyes. And in my fighting abilities, but that won't crop up for a while. So for the most time, I just suppress my youki and have my Miko powers on hand in case I need them. Sometimes I have to switch it, but not often."

"Oh," Kagome said ingeniously. 

"Shall we get started on those shields, then?" Kahori said cheerfully.

"Oh," the older woman said again, just as wittily. "Right. Shields. Yeah." Pulling strength from the Jewel and the fear crystal, she refilled her stores completely and reestablished the speaking connection. "You all know how to do the shield spell. All you have to do is follow me, and do what I say. Again, on the count of three." _Deep breath in._ "One." _Deep breath out. _"Two." _Oh boy_ "Three."

She separated from her body and rose into the sky, watching in wonder as scores upon scores of glowing spheres rose, each somehow individual. She herself was the largest of all, but that wasn't surprising. Kahori was the second-largest, and once more she wondered if it was a mere fluke that this girl was born with such an amount of Miko power. 

**__**

Together—NOW!

The souls raced to the edges of the city and formed a huge ring around it, then started whirling, faster and faster. Power built up around it, wavering and growing higher and higher, until finally it met in the very peak and, with a clang, solidified into an unbreakable dome, stretching on in either direction. It would keep out every youkai with the intention to harm a human but allow their allies in, along with humans.

Off they whisked to another city. 

They formed rings. They spun shields. Over and over again, the process was repeated, with so many people working together that the power among them was beyond measure. Also added were the strengths of the Shikon Jewel and the fear crystal, throwing threads of iron-strong power into every shield. Ten, twenty, thirty—the numbers climbed as they circled every city, banished the demons, and spun a new shield.

Finally they came to a halt. London, Toronto, New York, Beijing, Nara, and countless others; the shielded areas were everywhere.

__

Eat **that,** Naraku, she thought grimly, weary. **_Everyone return to your bodies, we're done for today._**

There was an exhausted cheering, and she could sense they were all proud of what they'd done. _She_ was proud of what they'd done. 

Kagome opened her eyes to find the nearby rooftops being used as perches for eagle youkai, wolf demons sitting a safe distance away from them, lion- and dragon- and monkey- and cougar-youkai waiting patiently, kitsune and tanuki, wind-riders and fire-dancers, earth-charmers and water-walkers, mountain hags and bat-youkai, tree-spirites and forest sprites, snow-imps and giants, thousands gathered in the streets around them.

It had taken Inuyasha thirteen years to gather the two thousand Miko and youkai he had in his command. It had taken her twelve hours to gather approximately a million.

__

"Don't look at me like I'm a lunatic, Kagome, whenever I was thinking about what I was gonna do next I thought, What would Kagome say?' because you never did anything wrong!"

"I'm just some silly woman from the future who spent the past thirteen years moping around and getting cheated on! You've spent them getting people that kill youkai to work side-by-side with them, doing something that helps people—"

"Because of **you,** Kagome. Dammit, bitch, if it weren't for you, I'd still be stuck to a tree, or dead, and Naraku would be running around free. Even if I were loose, I'd probably be out terrorizing some village. You changed me, Kagome, you changed everyone you came across for the better or helped get rid of them if they were too far gone, or saw that they could be helped and nearly killed yourself trying to save them. I didn't do it because it seemed like a good thing to do, Kagome. I did it because it's what I thought you'd do, and don't tell me you're good for nothing because we've all seen different."

Who would've thought Inuyasha's words would come true? "_I did it because it's what I thought you'd do."_ How right he was

Where was he now? Had he been killed in that blast? Her vision blurred with tears, but she swiftly scrubbed them away and looked out at the force amassed before her, unaware that Kahori was watching the martyr of her world with respect and wonder. To Kahori, she was an unshakable pillar of steel and sapphire, the very foundation on which was building the fate of the world. Would it be too much for her to carry, though?

**__**

Even though I leave will I go on believing

that this time is real - am I lost in this feeling?

Like a child passing through, never knowing the reason.

"I'm as drained as all of you," Kagome was saying, laughing a bit. "If you all want to be returned right now, I could try—"

The overwhelming _"NO!"_ from the crowds nearly bowled her over. She saw eyes watching her with respect and love, and was amazed at how she'd won them over so quickly. All it took was a crisis and those with the ability to stop it, and a ruler was made, reflected Kahori. Of course, where would the ruler be without her council? Checking her watch, she saw it was about time and glanced at the empty street beyond the crowds.

"You'll all have to make do with what we can get from the department stores and we'll have quite a bit of work to do with settling the pissed-off ghosts, and I'm sure we'll have enough room in the six-hundred-plus building to put up you guys. Until I can find a better headquarters, we'll have to stay with this. Thank you all so much for helping me, you've saved so many lives and we'll save many more by the time this ordeal is—is—who?"

Something strong was approaching, but it had passed through the shield, so it bore them no ill feelings—something else on their side and it was big. This was good. By now most people had sensed it and were gazing around.

"It's not going to hurt us," Kagome said quickly. "It's powerful and it's siding with us. Our lucky day."

"I suppose now would be a good time to tell you why your well doesn't work," Kahori said sheepishly.

Kagome barely remembered to stammer out a "One moment, please," and break off the speech connection before shrieking, _"WHAT?! YOU **KNEW?!"**_

"Well—um—you see—well, that's not important right now!" Kahori glanced over at the crowds. "There are two portals in this world, one to the past and one to the future. The well _was_ the one to the past, but when you didn't go into the Shikon Jewel, it completely screwed up what the stupid rock _wanted_ to happen and jammed up the system. It let off the steam in that big explosion, but that sucker was so huge it blew a hole through space _and_ time, opening a new portal to the past, which meant yours had to be closed off. Naraku woke up on the bottom of the new portal, where his castle was, and you were hurled into the flat zone—no time or space or anything—but the Jewel pulled you to the last place you traveled time through. Anyway, people can come through the past portal and I came through the one to the future—but that one only opens to really strong people. So, um, yeah. Oh, and I also know why Naraku came back, why the Shikon Jewel tried to pull you in, andwhat elseoh, let me remember thisIs that _all_ I know? Well, that I'm allowed to tell you, anyway"

Kagome's mind was whirling. That did make senseso she could go back and make sure Inuyasha was all right—but could she leave her followers? Was it right to call them followers—was she a leader, even? On reflection, it hit her that she really, truly was. Like Inuyasha, she had taken a hold of the situation and done what she could with it, uniting people of every kind—hell, people of almost every _species_ if you counted the youkai—under one cause. They had followed Inuyasha to defeat Naraku. They would follow her now.

Saddened eyes swept over the broken city, lingering on the bloodstains on the buildings, the mourning and angry souls she could sense, the markers of horrible deaths and the people who would bear the scars of them for the rest of their lifetime. In such a short time, how her world had changed so muchNowhere was truly safe, not outside the cities, and even then the ghosts would cause trouble. Could a balance ever be struck, and happiness return to this cancerous time?

People were moving about, some of the more courageous going to converse with the youkai and others speaking with what appeared to be store owners. There was hope, and it rested on these people.

"What a gods-damned mess," a rough voice grumbled from behind her. 

She whirled, face paling, only to find the white-haired hanyou behind her. "I-I-I-_Inuyasha?"_

"No, I'm the radish god," he said sarcastically.

Abruptly she turned away, unaware that people were watching her—not just the people from below, but also people watching the television (the helicopters were circling around her again, though it wasn't a very good shot of her). Her hands were over her mouth, and she was keeping her eyes tightly shut, willing herself not to cry, not now.

"Kagome?" She could hear him shuffle closer. "Kagome—don't cry, oh damn, don't cry." He turned her around gently, the worry in his voice. "Come on, Kagome, look at me." Her eyes opened of their own accord, letting loose the hot tears that coursed down her cheeks. Blushing and embarrassed, she kept her gaze lowered and to the side.

He carefully took a corner of his sleeve and wiped the tears away, feeling unsure of himself. "Kagome, please look at me," he pleaded softly. 

Her tear-stained eyes, still a beautiful blue-silver, met his, and that was all it took. 

Cheers erupted from the crowds as the hanyou pulled her in for a kiss, making her blush even more, but at the moment she really didn't mind.

The world was far from perfect and even farther from paradise, and the unanswered questions were the ones most vital. Everyone worldwide had lost something, someone, to the slaughter Naraku had brought down on them, and the fight was far from over. [AN: Well, duh, I've still got about four more chapters after this, give or take one!] From there on, it was going to get harder, and she would have to take every challenge as it came.

But she wouldn't do it alone, and that was most important of all.

"For twelve hour's work, you know this is pretty impressive," Inuyasha informed her when they broke apart.

She shrugged, the sadness in her eyes lightening a bit as she smiled. "I did it because that's what I thought you would do."

His eyes widened, recognizing the words he himself had told her, and then he pulled her close again, this time just holding her. Cheers broke out again, cheers from the hundreds of thousands of people who looked up to her as the one who would bring them to happiness, cheers from the remnants of a broken world, gathering the ashes and ready to try and reshape their lives again.

**__**

I am home—I know the way

I am home—feeling oh, so far away

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**__**

Hot damn, and Merry joyful Holly-freaking-Jolly god-damn Christmas! -_-;; Not even going there, or I just know this'll turn into a rant Anyway, here's a gift from the bottom of mywait, do I actually have a heart? Well, if I had one this'd be from the bottom of it.

Anyway, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Kool Kwanzaa, Joyful Festivus Whatever floats your train. Happy Holidays, yeah, that'll work. And even if you're an atheist, just consider this a belated birthday present. 

Anyway, I've completely forgotten what the title of the next chapter is, but NOT what happens in it! -^_^- **_You are going to hate and love me, big surprise, what else is new?_**

-_-zzz Dammit, there I go again, falling asleep at the keyboard. Hope you liked this chapter, and if you didn't, bully for you. Go drown in a birdbath, ya schmuck.

Bah humbug. Merry god-damn Christmas, and God bless us, every one, except for my stalker because his hands change color with his moods, clearly indicating he is an affiliate of the Devil.


End file.
